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CHILDREN'S   GOSPEL 
STORY-SERMONS 


Children's  Gospel 
Story-Sermons 


By 
HUGH  T.  KERR,  D.D. 

Author  of  ^^ Children" s  Missionary  Story-Sermons,' 
** Children' s  Story-Sermons,"''  etc. 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming     H.     Revell     Company 
London       and       Edinburgh 


,  y  pfii 


Copyright,  1921,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


Printed  in  United  States  of  America 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:    75    Princes    Street 


DEDICATED   TO 
WILSON  A.  SHAW 

A  FRIEND 
OF  ALL  THE  CHILDREN. 


FOREWORD 

THE  kindly  reception  given  to  the  two 
preceding  volumes,  "Children's  Story 
Sermons"  and  "Children's  Missionary 
Story  Sermons,"  together  with  the  persuasive 
insistence  of  the  children  and  their  friends, 
have  led  to  the  publication  of  this  volume  of 
"Children's  Gospel  Story  Sermons." 

During  the  past  few  years  there  has  been 
an  encouraging  increase  in  the  publication  of 
religious  literature  for  children.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  exaggerate  the  value  and  importance 
of  meeting  a  need  that  is  obvious  to  all  who 
think.  The  danger  is  that  those  who  attempt 
to  meet  the  need  may  miss  the  mark. 

These  are  Story  Sermons.  They  are  not 
stories  and  must  not  be  so  judged.  Some- 
times they  "tag  a  moral  to  a  tale."  They  are 
not  sermons  and  must  not  be  tested  by  the 
one,  two,  three  method  of  the  classroom  or 
the  pulpit.  Simplicity  has  been  aimed  at  but 
the  great  central  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
faith  have  not  been  neglected. 

Sir  James  Barrie  in  "The  Little  Minister" 
says   that    the    first    question    always    asked 
7 


8  FOREWORD 

of  the  child  in  his  day  was  not,  "What  is  your 
name?"  but  "What  are  you  going  to  be?"  and 
that  one  child  in  every  family  replied,  "A  min- 
ister." If  this  volume  succeeds  in  interesting 
one  outstanding  boy  to  become  a  minister  who 
will  preach  better  Story  Sermons  than  these, 
the  purpose  of  this  book  will  have  been  se- 
cured, 

H.  T.  K. 

PnrsBURGH,  Pa. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTBR 

I.   The  Flower  Clock 


2.  The  Holy  Road    .... 

3.  The  Bengal  Tiger 

4.  The  Best  Not  Good  Enough    . 

5.  A  Word  That  Was  a  Lamp    . 

6.  Bells  of  Gold       .... 

7.  The  Name  in  the  Garden 

8.  The  Penny  and  the  Dollar    . 

9.  Things  Money  Cannot  Buy    . 

10.  The  Boy  Who  Became  a  Deacon 

11.  Playing  Church  .... 

12.  A  Christmas  Story-Sermon    . 

13.  Three  Pictures  of  a  Boy  . 

14.  The  Little  Lame  Prince  . 

15.  The  House  by  the  Side  of  the  Road      60 


16.  A  Fire  in  a  Cold  Room 

17.  The  Closed  Doorway  . 

18.  Ihe  Timber  Line 

19.  The  Preacher  and  the  King  . 

20.  Building  a  Life    .       .       .       . 

9 


VA6B 

13 
16 

22 
26 
30 

33 
37 
40 

43 

47 
50 
54 
57 


63 
66 

69 

72 

75 


lo  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  JAC« 

79 


—  21.  Listening  to  God 

22.  The   Gladdest   Day   of  the   Year 

23.  Pussy  Wants  a  Corner 

24.  When  Lincoln  Failed 

25.  The  Sights  of  a  Great  City     . 

26.  The  Puzzle  Garden    . 

27.  If  You  Became  President  . 

28.  The    Best    Part    of    the    Story 

29.  Hearing  and  then  Seeing 
'^    30.  The  Three  Choices    . 

31.  The  Little  Foxes 

32.  A  Little  Baby  and  a  Grasshopper 

33.  The  Apostle  Who  Loved  Children 

34.  The  Little  Anchor     . 

35.  The    Prince    with    Many    Names 

36.  Asking  the  Blessing  . 

37.  The  Oldest  Thing  in  the  World 

38.  The  Value  of  a  Bishop 

39.  Playing  the  Game 

40.  In  Verdun 

41.  A  French  Patriot 

42.  The  Little  Companion 

43.  Greater  Than  Alexander 

44.  The  Ice  That  Made  Fire  . 

45.  I  Never  Knew  His  Name  . 


82 
85 
89 
92 

96 

99 
103 
106 
109 
112 

115 
118 
121 
124 
127 
130 

133 
136 

139 
142 

145 
149 

152 

15.S 


CONTENTS 


II 


CHAPTBR 

46.  The  Light  in  the  Window 

47.  An  Easter  Story-Sermon 

48.  The  Unknown  Prince 

49.  Very  Little  But  Very  Wise. 

Ant" 

50.  Very  Little  But  Very  Wise. 

Coney  "        .... 

51.  Very  Little  But  Very  Wise. 

Locust"      .... 

52.  Very  Little  But  Very  Wise. 


The 
The 
The 
The 


PACM 

162 

168 


Lizard" 178 


THE  FLOWER  CLOCK 

"I  make  all  things  new." — Rev.  21 : 5. 

THE  Other  day,  I  heard  about  a  new  sort 
of  clock.  I  had  heard  about  grand- 
father clocks  and  banjo  clocks  and 
eight  day  clocks  and  electric  and  radium  clocks 
and  clocks  that  would  not  go.  I  had  even 
heard  of  John  B.  Cough's  clock.  When  it 
pointed  to  three  o'clock,  it  struck  six,  and  then 
he  knew  it  was  half-past  nine.  But  I  had 
never  heard  about  a  flower  clock.  That  was 
a  new  sort  of  clock. 

It  was  made  by  a  great  lover  of  flowers  and 
shrubs  and  trees.  His  name  was  Linnaeus 
and  he  lived  in  Sweden.  His  real  name  was 
Karl  Von  Linne.  When  he  was  four  years 
old  he  began  to  ask  queer  and  interesting 
questions  about  plants  and  flowers  and  when 
he  became  an  old  man  he  was  as  reverent  in 
a  garden  as  he  was  in  church.  His  motto  in 
life  was,  "Live  quietly.    God  is  here." 

His  garden  was  full  of  rare  and  strange 
plants  and  it  was  in  the  garden  that  he  kept 
13 


14        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

his  flower  clock.  The  hours  of  the  clock  were 
marked  by  flowers  that  opened  and  closed  at 
exactly  the  time  of  day  where  they  appeared 
on  the  dial  of  the  clock.  The  first  flower  to 
open  was  the  goat's  beard  which  marked  the 
hour  of  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  from 
that  hour  on  to  midnight,  every  hour  was 
marked  by  the  opening  of  a  new  flower.  At 
midnight  the  large  flowering  cactus  closed  its 
petals  and  then  until  three  o'clock  the  great 
flower  clock  rested.  What  a  strange  clock  it 
was  and  what  a  wise  man  he  was  who  made  it. 
He  knew  every  flower  and  the  hour  when  it 
opened  and  closed  its  petals.  Each  hour  was 
thus  marked  by  a  beauty  and  fragrance  of  its 
own. 

Every  true  life  oughi  to  he  lil:e  :i  f;rt.at 
flower  clock.  Every  hour  und  every  day  an  • 
every  year  shonlvl  be  bripjl^t  and  beautiful. 
The  Christian  lite  Is  full  of  })leasai)t  surprises 
and  is  like  a  continuous  springtime.  The  hours 
are  full  of  joy  and  beauty,  and  youth  and  old 
age  have  always  their  own  delights.  Did  you 
ever  notice  how  often  in  the  Bible  life  is  com- 
pared to  flowers  and  plants  and  trees? 

"As  a  flower  of  the  field  so  he  flourisheth." 
"Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field  how  they  grow." 
"He  shall  grow  like  a  cedar  in  Lebanon." 
"Erery  good  tree  bringeth  forth  good  fruit." 


THE  FLOWER  CLOCK  15 

If  you  will  call  to  mind  the  words  of  the 
First  Psalm  which  is  one  the  Psalms  boys  and 
and  girls  should  know  by  heart,  you  will  dis- 
cover that  it  almost  exactly  describes  a  good 
life  in  terms  of  the  flower  clock: 

"He  shall  be  like  a  tree 
Planted  by  the  rivers  of  water, 
That  bringeth  forth  his  fruit 
In  his  season; 

His  leaf  als»  shall  not  wither; 
And  whatsoever  he  doeth 
Shall  prosper." 

In  the  very  last  chapter  of  the  Bible,  we  read 
of  the  tree  of  life  which  bears  twelve  manner 
of  fruits  and  yields  her  fruit  every  month. 
The  Christian  life  is  like  an  unfading  flower 
and  like  unfr.iHn.9f  fruit. 


II 

THE  HOLY  ROAD 
"The  way  of  holiness." — Isa.  35 : 8. 

THERE  is  a  road  in  France  that  is  called 
"The  Holy  Road."  It  is  not  a  long 
road.  It  runs  between  the  little  city 
of  Bar  de  Due  and  the  great  fortress  of  Ver- 
dun. Our  American  soldiers  called  Bar  le 
Due  "jelly  town"  because  the  finest  jelly  in  the 
world  is  made  there. 

The  road  from  Bar  le  Due  to  Verdun  runs 
among  hills  and  beautiful  valleys.  I  travelled 
up  that  road  one  day  in  a  Ford  truck  and  it 
reminded  me  of  a  name  I  once  saw  painted  on 
an  old  overworked  automobile,  "Rolls  Rujff." 

The  German  Army  decided  to  capture  Ver- 
dun at  any  cost  and  the  French  determined  to 
hold  it  at  any  cost.  If  you  go  there  to-day 
you  will  see  what  a  price  was  paid  by  both 
Germany  and  France,  but  France  kept  her 
pledge:     "They  shall  not  pass." 

When  the  great  battle  began,  the  railroads 
running  into  Verdun  were  destroyed  and  the 
French  Army  had  to  be  supplied  by  means  of 
16 


THE  HOLY  ROAD  17 

trucks  and  the  road  from  Bar  le  Due  was  the 
only  highway.  So  over  this  road  thousands  of 
army  trucks  travelled  day  and  night.  Every 
day  for  three  long  cruel  months,  12,000  trucks 
went  up  to  Verdun,  loaded  with  soldiers  and 
food  and  guns  and  ammunition  and  every  day 
for  three  long  cruel  months  12,000  army 
trucks  returned  from  Verdun  loaded  with 
wounded  and  wearied  men.  If  anything  went 
wrong  with  a  truck  it  was  cast  aside  and  the 
great  grey  procession  moved  on.  Over  that 
highway  more  soldiers  travelled  never  to  re- 
turn than  over  any  other  road  in  the  world. 
That  is  why  the  French  people  call  it  "The 
Holy  Road."  It  led  over  the  road  of  sacrifice 
and  service  to  the  gates  of  death  and  victory. 

I  often  think  of  that  Holy  Road  and  the 
graves  I  saw  there  and  it  has  always  seemed 
to  me  since  that  there  are  other  Holy  Roads 
that  we  can  travel  even  in  days  of  peace. 

A  good  life  is  a  Holy  Road,  and  this  was 
v/hat  the  prophet  meant  when  he  spoke  of  the 
coming  of  Jesus  who  would  build  in  the  world 
"the  way  of  holiness."  Jesus  shows  us  the 
true  way  to  live.  He  leads  us  not  in  byways 
and  in  dangerous  paths,  but  in  ways  of  right- 
eousness, in  right  ways,  on  the  road  of  holi- 
ness. 

A  life  of  ser\nce  is  a  Holy  Road.    This  was 


i8        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

the  road  the  soldiers  travelled.  They  went  for- 
ward to  serve  their  country.  Every  time  we 
do  something  for  others  we  travel  over  a  Holy 
Road.  The  missionary  travels  a  Holy  Road 
to  India  or  China  or  Africa.  The  teacher 
travels  a  Holy  Road  to  school  or  church. 
The  boy  or  girl  who  comes  or  goes  cheerfully 
at  the  call  of  father  or  mother  travels  a  Holy 
Road,  but  the  holiest  of  all  roads  is  the  road 
Jesus  travelled  to  Calvary,  and  we,  too,  may 
travel  the  Holy  Road  with  him  if  we  will  rise 
up  and  follow  him. 


"In  simple  trust  like  theirs  who  heard, 
Beside  the  Syrian  Sea. 
The  gracious  calling  of  the  Lord 
Let  us,  like  them,  without  a  word 
Rise  up  and  follow  Thee." 


Ill 

THE  BENGAL  TIGER 

"Free  from  sin." — Rom.  6 :  22. 

THE  Other  day  I  took  five-year-old 
Donald  to  see  the  great  tiger  at  the 
Zoo.  It  walked  up  to  the  bars  from 
the  back  of  the  cage  and  Donald's  face  got 
white  and  then  he  ran  away.  I  did  not  blame 
him.  If  there  were  no  iron  bars  I  would  have 
run  faster  than  he  did. 

But  how  would  you  like  to  be  alone  with  a 
great  Bengal  tiger  on  a  lonely  hillside?  I 
heard  of  a  man  who  had  that  strange  experi- 
ence. He  was  a  British  officer  in  India.  He 
had  a  little  summer  house  on  the  top  of  a  high 
hill  which  overlooked  the  jungle,  but  far 
enough  removed  from  it  to  cause  him  no  fear. 
And  then  he  was  an  army  officer  and  had  rifles 
and  pistols,  so  why  should  he  be  afraid? 

One  year  in  the  time  of  the  rainy  season, 
a  great  flood  covered  the  fields.  There  was 
water  everywhere.  The  streams  overflowed 
and  the  jungle  became  a  great  swamp,  and  the 
only  dry  place  around  was  the  hill  where  the 
19 


20        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

army  officer  lived.  As  the  water  rose  higher 
and  higher,  the  native  people  took  refuge  on 
the  hill  around  his  home,  and  out  of  the  forest 
came  the  jungle  animals.  It  was  a  strange 
group  that  found  shelter  on  that  Indian  hill- 
side. Suddenly  fear  fell  upon  the  people,  for 
as  they  looked  out  over  the  rising  flood,  they 
saw  the  head  of  a  great  wild  Bengal  tiger.  It 
was  swimming  in  the  water  and  was  coming 
directly  to  the  hill  where  there  was  still  dry 
ground.  When  it  reached  the  land  it  shook 
off  the  water  and  lay  down  on  the  grass  as 
quietly  as  a  lamb. 

It  did  not  know  what  to  do.  It  was  afraid. 
Fear  had  taken  away  all  its  fierceness.  It  was 
more  afraid  than  the  people  who  had  been 
terrorised  by  its  coming.  What  could  they 
do?  Some  pitied  it.  But  the  Indian  officer 
knew  better.  He  knew  that  soon  the  flood 
would  disappear  and  that  fear  would  pass 
away  and  the  fierceness  of  the  tiger  would 
return,  so  he  took  his  gun  and  walked  up  to 
the  great  beast  which  was  lying  so  still  and 
brought  the  gun  close  to  its  head  and  shot, 
and  the  great  tiger  rolled  over  dead. 

Now  what  do  you  think  ?  Do  you  think  the 
officer  did  the  right  thing  or  was  he  cruel  ?  I 
am  sure  he  did  the  right  thing,  for  had  he 
waited,  the  great  wild  tiger  would  soon  have 


THE  BENGAL  TIGER  21 

attacked  the  helpless  women  and  children  who 
had  taken  refuge  on  the  hill.  There  was  only 
one  thing  to  do  with  that  wild  tiger,  and  that 
was  to  shoot  it  dead.  A  wild  tiger  is  never 
safe.  Better  shoot  it  than  have  it  destroy  and 
kill.  And  there  is  only  one  thing  to  do  with 
sin,  which  is  just  like  a  wild  beast,  and  that 
is  to  kill  it.  Don't  wait.  Even  if  it  seems 
harmless,  kill  it.  If  you  leave  a  bad  habit  alone, 
sooner  than  we  think  it  will  master  us  and 
enslave  and  destroy  us.  There  is  just  one 
right  thing  to  do  with  temptation  and  sin  and 
bad  habits,  and  that  is  to  kill  them  right  now. 
Don't  wait.  Do  with  sin  what  the  army  officer 
did  with  the  Bengal  tiger — shoot  it  dead. 


IV 

THE  BEST  NOT  GOOD  ENOUGH 

"Very  Precious." — John  12 :  3. 

NEXT  to  his  own  home  Jesus  loved  best 
the  home  at  Bethany.  Whenever  he 
could  get  away  from  the  busy  city  of 
Jerusalem  he  would  disappear  from  the  crowd 
and  spend  the  night  with  Mary  and  Martha 
and  Lazarus  in  their  Bethany  home.  The 
story  tells  us  that  "J^sus  loved  Martha  and  her 
sister  and  Lazarus." 

They  were  each  so  different,  yet  Jesus  loved 
them  all.  Mary  was  patient  and  sweet,  Martha 
was  restless  and  always  busy.  Lazarus  was 
sick  and  almost  always  silent,  but  Jesus  loved 
each  one.  They  seemed  to  understand  him 
even  better  than  his  disciples. 

Mary  especially  understood  and  knew  when 
Jesus  came  to  their  home  the  Saturday  before 
Good  Friday  that  his  enemies  would  soon  be- 
tray him  and  put  him  to  death.  So  one  night 
Mary  planned  to  show  her  love  to  Jesus  before 
he  should  die.  You  know  when  people  die  we 
send  flowers  to  the  home,  but  Mary  knew  a 
22 


THE  BEST  NOT  GOOD  ENOUGH     23 

better  way.  She  would  give  the  flowers  to 
Jesus  while  he  was  still  with  her.  That  is 
much  the  better  way.  Only  instead  of  giving 
him  flowers  she  poured  at  his  feet  rich  and 
fragrant  perfume,  for  in  those  days  people  did 
not  give  flowers  as  we  do.  The  perfume  which 
Mary  poured  out  was  so  rare  and  costly  that 
everybody  wondered  and  Judas  called  it 
"waste,"  but  Jesus  understood  and  his  heart 
was  made  glad. 

I  have  often  wondered  where  Mary  got  such 
rich  and  rare  perfume,  and  I  remember  an  old, 
old  story  about  her.  It  is  said  that  the  morn- 
ing after  the  thought  came  into  her  heart  she 
went  to  the  shop  in  the  city  where  perfumes 
were  kept  and  told  the  owner  what  she  wanted. 
He  showed  her  one  box  and  when  he  told  her 
the  price  she  asked  to  see  something  else.  He 
showed  her  another  and  another,  but  she  was 
not  satisfied.  The  shopman  was  puzzled,  but 
Mary  was  so  much  in  earnest  that  he  continued 
to  show  all  his  goods.  She  would  test  the  per- 
fume, ask  the  price  and  then  inquire  if  there 
was  not  something  still  better.  At  last  she 
had  tested  all  that  was  in  the  shop  and  was 
still  dissatisfied  when  the  owner  said  that  he 
had  one  box  of  precious  perfume,  but  it  was 
so  rich  and  so  rare  and  so  costly  that  he  felt 
she  would  not  wish  to  buy  it. 


24        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

Mary  was  not  a  wealthy  woman  and  the 
precious  box  would  cost  in  our  money  about 
fifty  dollars.  Mary's  eyes  showed  in  a  mo- 
ment that  she  was  interested  and  so  the  man 
brought  from  a  little  closed  cupboard  the  pre- 
cious box.  When  Mary  saw  it  and  smelled 
the  sweet  and  delicate  fragrance  she  said, 
"This  is  what  I  want.  Nothing  is  too  good 
for  my  Lord."  So  she  paid  the  price  and  that 
night  at  the  supper  table  when  her  friends  were 
with  her  she  took  the  precious  perfume  and 
"anointed  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  wiped  his 
feet  with  her  hair:  and  the  house  was  filled 
with  the  odor  of  the  ointment."  Judas  was 
angry  at  what  he  called  Mary's  wasteful  ex- 
travagance, but  Jesus  knew  she  had  done  it 
because  of  her  love  for  him  and  he  said :  "She 
hath  done  what  she  could;  she  hath  anointed 
my  body  beforehand  for  the  burying.  And 
verily  I  say  unto  you,  Wheresoever  the  gospel 
shall  be  preached  throughout  the  whole  world, 
that  also  which  this  woman  hath  done  shall 
be  spoken  of  for  a  memorial  of  her." 

That  is  a  beautiful  old  story  and  it  has  two 
sermons  wrapped  up  in  it.  The  first  is  that 
Mary  did  not  wait  till  Jesus  died  before  she 
showed  her  love.  She  brought  her  perfume  to 
Jesus  while  he  was  still  with  her.  Let  us  be- 
stow our  gifts  and  our  flowers  now  and  not 


THE  BEST  NOT  GOOD  ENOUGH  25 

wait  till  it  is  too  late.  The  second  sermon 
is  that  nothing  is  too  good  for  Jesus.  Mary 
was  not  satisfied  with  anything,  not  even  with 
a  second  best.  She  gave  Jesus  the  very  best 
she  could  find  and  the  most  costly  gift  she 
could  purchase.  Let  us  give  Jesus  our  best 
years,  our  best  thoughts,  our  best  love.  Noth- 
ing is  too  good  for  him. 

Let  this  be  our  prayer: 

Dear  Lord,  the  best  was  not  too  good  for 
Thee  to  give  us. 

Thou  didst  give  us  the  greatest  gift — Thy- 
self. 

Thou  didst  love  us  and  give  Thyself  for 
us.  With  Thyself  Thou  hast  given  light  to 
guide  us,  love  to  satisfy  us,  life  to  make  us 
strong. 

Dear  Lord,  we  would  give  Thee  our  best. 
We  would  give  Thee  our  best  thoughts,  our 
best  love,  our  best  days. 


A  WORD  THAT  WAS  A  LAMP 
"Thy  word  is  a  lamp." — Psalm  119:305. 

IF  you  listen  I  will  tell  you  how  a  word 
can  be  a  lamp.  Many,  many  years  ago, 
one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven  hun- 
dred years  ago  a  man  whose  name  was  Gil- 
bert a  Becket  lived  in  London,  England.  He 
was  young  and  brave  and  good.  He  was  a 
merchant  but  he  left  home  and  went  to  the 
Holy  Land  to  fight  to  win  back  Jerusalem 
from  the  heathen  people  who  had  held  it  for 
years.  He  was  a  Crusader.  Perhaps  you 
know  what  that  means. 

Well,  Gilbert  a  Becket  went  to  the  war  and 
he  was  taken  prisoner  and  sold  as  a  slave  to 
a  Saracen  Prince  who  was  very  cruel  and 
very  rich.  The  prince  put  him  to  work  in  his 
garden,  a  beautiful  garden,  and  at  night  shut 
him  up  in  a  prison  so  he  could  not  escape. 
One  day  when  he  was  hard  at  work,  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  prince  came  into  the  garden  and 
saw  this  young  man  with  the  beautiful  white 
face  and  became  much  interested  in  hhn 
26 


A  WORD  THAT  WAS  A  LAMP     27 

After  awhile  when  no  one  was  looking  she 
spoke  to  him  and  told  him  that  she  was  very 
sorry  for  him. 

That  was  not  all.  That  is  never  all  when 
a  beautiful  young  woman  meets  a  handsome 
young  man.  She  learned  to  love  him  and  after 
awhile  they  knew  that  they  loved  each  other. 
One  night  she  gave  him  money  and  opened  the 
door  of  his  prison  and  let  him  go  free.  She 
told  him  to  fly  to  England  and  she  would  fol- 
low him  some  day.  So  they  kissed  each  other 
good-bye,  and  that  was  the  end  of  his  garden- 
ing. 

But  what  has  that  to  do  with  a  word  being 
a  lamp  ?    Listen. 

Weeks  and  months  passed,  and  one  day  the 
princess  could  wait  no  longer.  She  too  would 
be  a  Christian  and  fly  to  England  and  meet 
her  lover.  But  those  were  hard  cruel  days  and 
the  way  was  not  easy.  She  did  not  know  the 
language  of  the  country  where  her  lover  had 
gone.  Before  he  left  he  had  taught  her  this 
word — "London"  and  she  knew  his  name,  "a 
Becket."  That  was  all  she  knew, — "London  a 
Becket." 

She  found  an  English  ship  and  when  she 
was  asked  where  she  wished  to  go  said  "Lon- 
don a  Becket."  That  was  all.  The  sailors 
did  not  understand  everything,  but  they  under- 


28        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

stood  enough.  That  word  became  a  lamp  to 
her  feet  and  a  light  to  her  path.  It  lighted  her 
over  the  deep  dark  dangerous  sea  and  she  came 
at  last  to  the  English  shore.  London  was  far 
from  the  shore  and  there  were  then  no  fine 
roads  and  no  fast  railroads.  The  road  was 
rough  and  full  of  robbers  and  bad  men.  "Lon- 
don a  Becket"  was  all  she  could  say,  but  that 
word  pointed  out  the  way  for  her  and  led  her 
on.  She  felt  strange  and  lonely  when  she  came 
to  the  great  city  and  men  and  women  and 
little  children  looked  wonderingly  at  her,  but 
all  she  could  say  was  "London  a  Becket." 

That  word  led  her  on  from  street  to  street 
and  from  door  to  door.  At  last  the  people  be- 
gan to  understand  and  they  too  began  to  speak 
the  word,  and  they  carried  it  from  house  to 
house  until  they  found  the  home  of  Gilbert  a 
Becket.  You  see  now  how  a  word  became  a 
lamp.  When  he  saw  her  and  heard  her  voice, 
he  ran  and  caught  her  in  his  strong  arms  and 
brought  her  into  his  home  and  they  were  hap- 
pily married.  That  word  had  lighted  her  path 
and  brought  her  to  the  very  door  of  her  lover 
and  into  his  arms.  They  were  very  happy  and 
like  all  true  stories,  they  lived  together  and 
loved  each  other  for  many  years.  She  was  the 
mother  of  one  of  the  world's  great  men — 
Thomas  a  Becket,  who  became  Archbishop  of 


A  WORD  THAT  WAS  A  LAMP    29 

Canterbury,  about  whom  you  have  read  and 
heard. 

So  you  see  a  word  can  be  a  Hght  and  a  lamp. 
There  are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  words 
in  the  Bible  which  have  guided  men  and  wo- 
men over  hard  and  dangerous  roads,  through 
dark  nights,  and  brought  them  to  happiness  and 
peace.  Let  me  give  you  two  or  three  of  these 
guiding  words. 

"Come  unto  me." 

"Trust  in  the  Lord." 

"Fear  not.    I  am  with  thee." 

"God  is  love." 

"The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd." 

Boys  and  girls  should  hide  away  God's  words 
in  their  hearts.  Those  who  walk  in  the  light 
of  Bible  truth  will  never  wander. 

"Thy  Word  is  like  a  starry  host; 
A  thousand  rays  of  light 
Are  seen  to  guide  the  traveller 
And  make  his  pathway  bright." 

There  is  one  word  which  has  lighted  mil- 
lions on  their  way.  Little  children  and  old 
men  have  followed  its  leading,  and  its  light 
never  burns  dim  and  never  goes  out.  It  is  the 
word  "J^sus."  When  we  speak  his  name  he 
comes.  He  is  the  Light  of  the  World  and  He 
is  our  Guide. 


VI 

BELLS  OF  GOLD 
"Bells  of  Gold."— Ex.  28:33. 

THE  Bible  does  not  say  much  about  bells. 
The  people  of  the  Bible  did  not  use 
bells  as  we  do.  Those  little  bells  of 
gold  in  the  text  were  little  tinkling  ornaments 
on  the  fringe  of  the  garment  of  the  high  priest. 
The  people  of  olden  times  did  not  have  beauti- 
full  bells  and  chimes  such  as  we  have.  We  use 
bells  to  tell  the  time,  to  give  alarm,  to  herald 
a  celebration,  to  call  to  church.  The  Jews  did 
not  ring  bells  to  call  to  worship,  they  sounded 
a  silver  trumpet.  But  a  bell  can  be  heard  much 
farther  than  a  trumpet  and  for  centuries 
church  bells  in  all  countries  have  been  calling 
people  to  prayer.  We  wonder  how  people  got 
along  without  bells  and  chimes,  calling  them  to 
worship  and  telling  them  that  the  Sabbath  had 
come  and  the  doors  of  the  temple  had  been 
flung  wide  open. 

Over  in  England,  near  a  pretty  little  coun- 
try village  called  Warmsworth,  there  Is  a  little 
old  church  that  has  no  steeple  and  no  bell.     It 
30 


BELLS  OF  GOLD  31 

is  located  nearly  a  mile  from  the  village  and 
when  you  look  carefully  at  the  church  you  feel 
that  once  upon  a  time  it  must  have  had  a  bell 
and  a  steeple.  Well,  it  had  and  this  is  the 
story. 

The  church  was  so  far  from  the  village  that 
the  people  rarely  heard  the  church  bell  ring. 
If  the  wind  was  high  or  the  day  stormy  or  the 
people  busy,  the  bell  would  ring  and  no  one 
would  hear  and  so  Sunday  was  forgotten  and 
the  church  neglected,  for  the  people  in  the 
olden  times  did  not  keep  track  of  the  days  and 
the  hours  as  we  do.  They  did  not  have  watches 
and  clocks  and  calendars  and  some  times  they 
lost  count  of  the  days  of  the  week.  The  old 
minister  was  worried  and  at  last  he  said,  "This 
is  what  ril  do.  If  the  people  cannot  hear  the 
bell,  then  I'll  make  them  hear  it.  I'll  take  the 
bell  into  the  village."  And  he  did.  He  had 
the  steeple  removed  from  the  church  and  put 
up  in  the  town  and  whenever  services  were  held 
in  the  church,  the  bell  would  ring  right  in  the 
midst  of  the  people.  There,  to-day,  among 
the  houses  you  can  see  the  ivy  covered  steeple 
with  the  belfry  and  people  cannot  forget  the 
hour  of  service.  Don't  you  think  he  was  a 
very  wise  and  wonderful  old  minister! 

And  lest  we  forget,  God  has  put  a  little  bell 
not  in  our  village  but  in  our  hearts.     There 


32        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

it  rings  and  we  cannot  help  hearing  it.  It  rings 
in  among  our  thoughts  and  feehngs  and  ac- 
tions. Sometimes  it  rings  an  alarm  as  if  it 
were  an  iron  bell  and  we  say : 

"Hear  the  tolling  of  the  bells, 
Iron  bells." 

Sometimes  it  rings  for  joy  and  we  listen  as 
if  to  golden  bells.  Sometimes  it  warns  and 
startles  us  and  then  again  it  rings  like  chimes 
in  among  happy  music.  What  do  we  call  that 
little  bell  ?  Yes !  It  is  conscience.  We  speak 
of  it  as  a  voice — the  voice  of  conscience,  and 
we  call  it  the  voice  of  God  in  our  souls,  but  I 
like  to  think  of  it  as  a  bell,  that  calls  us  to 
prayer,  to  worship,  to  God, 

"Far,  far  away,  like. bells  at  evening  pealing, 

The  voice  of  Jesus  sounds  o'er  land  and  sea; 
And  laden  souls,  by  thousands  meekly  stealing. 
Kind  Shepherd,  turn  their  weary  steps  to  Thee." 


VII 

THE  NAME  IN  THE  GARDEN 

"In  the  beginning  God." — Gen.  i :  i. 

I  WONDER  how  many  know  the  very  first 
verse  in  the  Bible.  Of  course  everybody 
knows  what  it  is.  It  begins,  "In  the  be- 
ginning God."  I  think  that  is  a  wonderful  way 
for  the  Bible  to  start.  It  puts  God  first.  It 
puts  God  in  the  very  first  verse  of  the  first 
chapter  of  the  first  book  in  the  Bible  and  that 
is  the  way  every  boy  and  girl  should  begin 
life.    They  should  put  God  first. 

Away  over  in  a  city  called  Aberdeen,  nearly 
three  hundred  years  ago,  there  lived  a  great 
wise  man  who  was  a  poet,  that  is,  he  wrote 
verses,  and  he  was  also  a  philosopher,  that  is, 
he  said  and  wrote  many  wise  things.  So  wise 
was  he  that  the  King  of  England  sent  for  him 
and  gave  him  a  pension  of  a  thousand  dollars  a 
year  for  the  wonderful  wise  way  he  had  of 
telling  plain  people  and  little  children  about 
the  things  of  God. 

I  am  going  to  tell  you  how  wise  he  was.    His 
name  was  Dr.  James  Beattie,  and  he  had  a 
33 


34        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

little  boy  in  his  home  who  was  just  five  years 
old,  and  he  had  learned  to  spell  out  his  own 
name.  You  know  that  is  the  first  word  a  little 
child  learns.  To  spell  his  own  name  is  the 
most  important  thing  in  the  world  to  him. 
This  wise  father  was  anxious  to  have  his  lit- 
tle boy  learn  something  else  than  letters  and 
words.  He  wanted  him  to  learn  about  God, 
and  he  wondered  and  wondered  how  he  could 
teach  his  little  boy  that  everything  in  the  world 
belonged  to  God. 

One  day  he  went  out  into  the  garden  and 
wrote  his  little  son's  name  in  the  ground  with 
his  finger  and  then  sowed  some  mustard  seed 
in  the  place  where  he  had  written  the  letters 
of  the  little  lad's  name.  He  said  nothing  about 
what  he  had  done.  After  ten  days  or  so,  the 
little  boy  came  running  into  his  father's  study 
saying,  "Father,  father,  my  name  is  coming 
up  in  the  garden."  He  could  read  it  and  it 
was  as  wonderful  as  a  miracle  to  him.  His 
father  tried  not  to  show  any  surprise  and  told 
his  son  that  it  must  be  a  mistake,  that  it  could 
not  be  that  his  name  was  growing  up  in  the 
garden,  and  that  he  should  not  talk  like  that. 
But  the  little  boy  would  not  be  still,  and  taking 
him  by  the  hand  said,  "Come,  father,  come,  and 
see  for  yourself  if  my  name  is  not  coming  up 
in  the  ground."     Sure  enough  there  it  was  in 


THE  NAME  IN  THE  GARDEN      35 

beautiful  green  letters,  and  the  l.'ttle  boy 
could  spell  out  his  own  name, — J-A-M-E-S 
B-E-A-T-T-I-E. 

But  still  the  father  seemed  not  to  be  sur- 
prised and  said,  "There  is  nothing  strange 
about  it.  It  just  came  there  I  suppose,"  The 
boy  was  not  satisfied  and  taking  his  father  by 
the  hand,  he  led  him  into  the  house  and  said, 
*T  don't  think  it  came  by  chance,  father,  it 
could  not  come  by  chance."  "Do  you  think 
somebody  put  it  there?"  asked  his  father. 
"Yes,  father,  I  do.  I  think  somebody  put  it 
there."  Then  the  great  man  took  the  little 
boy  on  his  knee  and  told  him  that  somebody 
had  put  it  there,  that  he  had  put  it  there  him- 
self. 

He  then  told  him  about  the  great  world,  and 
that  Somebody  must  have  made  the  great  beau- 
tiful world  with  its  flowers  and  trees  and  birds, 
and  that  Somebody  had  made  him  and  put  him 
into  the  garden  of  life,  and  that  that  Some- 
body was  God,  and  that  he  was  God's  little  boy 
and  was  more  wonderful  than  all  the  mustard 
seed  and  all  the  gardens,  for  God  had  put  him 
into  this  life  for  some  great  purpose. 

God  cares  more  for  little  children  than  for 
flowers  and  trees  and  mountains  and  starry 
nights,  and  just  as  God  cares  for  the  grass 
of  the  field,  so  He  cares  for  His  own  dear  chil- 


36        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

dren.    God  is  the  great  Gardener,  and  it  is  He 
who  makes  beauty  in  a  leaf  and  in  a  life. 

"He  leant,  at  sunset,  on  his  spade. 

(Oh,  but  the  child  was  sweet  to  see, 
The  one  who  in  the  orchard  played!) 
He  called,  'I've  planted  you  a  tree !' 

"The  boy  looked  at  it  for  a  while. 

Then  at  the  radiant  woods  below; 
And  said,  with  wonder  in  his  smile — 
'Why  don't  you  put  the  leaves  on  though  ?* 

"The  gardener,  with  a  reverent  air, 
Lifted  his  eyes,  took  off  his  hat — 
'The  Other  Man,  the  One  up  there,' 
He  answered,  'He  must  see  to  that.' " 


VIII 
THE  PENNY  AND  THE  DOLLAR 
"Faithful  in  that  which  is  least." — Luke  i6  :  lo. 

JESUS  had  faith  in  little  things.  He 
loved  little  children.  He  called  his  dis- 
ciples his  "little  flock."  He  tested  suc- 
cess according  to  faithfulness  in  little  things. 
The  other  day  I  heard  about  a  quarrel  be- 
tween something  that  was  very  little  and  some- 
thing that  was  big.  No !  It  was  not  between 
a  little  dog  and  a  big  dog.  It  was  a  quarrel 
between  a  penny  and  a  dollar,  and  this  is  how 
it  began  and  this  is  how  it  ended.  The  dol- 
lar said  to  the  penny  something  like  this, — 
"Little  penny,  you're  just  no  good.  You  can't 
buy  anything  any  more  and  you're  not  worth 
carrying  around.  It  takes  a  hundred  of  you 
to  make  one  of  me  and  even  I  can't  buy  much, 
but  you're  just  no  good.  You  might  just  as 
well  go  out  of  business."  When  it  heard  that 
the  little  penny  turned  over  twice  and  looking 
straight  into  the  face  of  the  big  dollar,  said, 
"Mr.  Dollar,  most  of  what  you  say  is  true. 
Every  one  knows  it's  true.  But  when  you  say 
37 


38        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

that  you  are  better  than  I  am,  that  is  not  true. 
I  am  better  than  you.  Indeed,  I  am  much  bet- 
ter, for  I  go  to  church  every  Sunday  and  you 
go  only  once  in  awhile." 

And  that  is  how  the  quarrel  ended,  for  out 
of  the  pennies  and  the  nickels  and  the  dimes, 
missionary  schools  and  colleges  have  been 
built.  Big  things  are  always  quarrelling  with 
little  things  and  all  the  time  the  little  things  go 
on  with  their  work. 

I  have  heard  too  of  another  quarrel  between 
something  that  was  very  little  and  something 
that  was  very  big.  It  was  between  a  little  liv- 
ing thing  and  a  great  big  thing,  as  big  as  a 
mountain.  Indeed,  it  was  between  a  great  big 
mountain  and — what  do  you  think  ?  The  story 
is  told  in  verse  and  this  is  the  story: — 

"The  mountain  and  the  squirrel 
Had  a  quarrel 
And  the  former  called  the  latter  'Little  Prig.' " 

Now  that  was  not  nice.  It  is  never  nice  to  call 
people  names,  and  the  mountain  was  big  and 
strong  and  the  squirrel  was  little  and  timid. 
But  the  squirrel  turned  up  his  bushy  tail  and 
shook  it  at  the  mountain  and  said,  "Oh !" 

"You  are  doubtless  very  big! 
But  all  sorts  of  things  and  weather 
Must  be  taken  in  together 
To  make  up  a  year 
And  a  sphere 


THE  PENNY  AND  THE  DOLLAR  39 

And  I  think  it  no  disgrace 
To  occupy  my  place 
I^  I'm  not  so  large  as  you 
You  are  not  so  small  as  I 
And  not  half  so  spry." 

I  am  sure  you  feel  that  was  a  very  good  reply. 
But  the  squirrel  was  not  through.  He  was 
bound  to  have  the  last  word  so  he  said  to  the 
mountain : 

"I'll  not  deny  you  make 
A  very  pretty  squirrel  track; 
Talents  differ;  all  is  well  and  wisely  put 
If  I  cannot  carry  forests  on  my  back 
Neither  can  you  crack  a  nut." 

Now  that  was  the  end  of  the  quarrel  for  there 
was  nothing  left  for  the  mountain  to  say,  and 
Emerson  who  wrote  those  pretty  lines  meant 
us  to  see  that  each  was  best  in  its  own  place. 
And  yet  we  like  to  remember  that  Jesus  loved 
little  things  best  of  all,  for  once  when  the 
disciples  were  quarrelling  about  who  was  the 
greatest,  Jesus  took  a  little  child — perhaps  a 
little  blue  eyed  boy  with  curly  hair,  and  taking 
him  on  his  knee  he  told  them  that  a  little  child 
has  first  place  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


IX 

THINGS  MONEY  CANNOT  BUY 

"Silver  and  gold  have  I  none." — Acts  3 : 6. 

WHEN  Christmas  comes,  we  like  to 
buy  presents  for  our  friends  and 
before  we  know  it,  our  money  is  all 
gone.  Somehow  we  get  to  think  that  if  we 
have  no  money  we  can  give  nothing  and  do 
nothing  and  we  forget  that  the  very  best  things 
in  the  world  cannot  be  bought  with  money. 
We  cannot  buy  love  or  laughter  or  friendship 
or  the  stars  or  the  sky  or  the  birds  or  the  great 
wide  sea  with  money. 

When  Peter  and  John  met  the  beggar  at  the 
Beautiful  Gate  of  the  Temple,  he  asked  them 
for  money.  Peter  and  John  had  no  money. 
They  were  poor  men.  They  were  almost  as 
poor  as  the  beggar  himself.  But  they  did  not 
pass  him  by.  They  did  not  say  "no"  to  him. 
They  looked  at  him  and  Peter  said,  "Silver 
and  gold  have  I  none;  but  such  as  I  have,  give 
I  thee :  In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Nazareth  rise  up  and  walk."  The  beggar  ob- 
tained that  day  the  greatest  gift  he  ever  re- 
40 


THINGS  MONEY  CANNOT  BUY     41 

ceived  and  it  was  a  gift  that  had  nothing  to 
do  with  money  or  silver  or  gold.  If  we  could 
only  remember  that  the  best  gifts  have  nothing 
to  do  with  money,  much  happiness  would  be 
added  to  life. 

I  was  reading  not  long  ago  about  a  poor 
man  who  had  lost  his  memory.  For  years  he 
was  cared  for  like  a  little  child.  He  had  been 
a  rich  man  and  had  had  a  college  education, 
but  everything  that  he  once  had,  meant  noth- 
ing to  him  and  when  he  died  he  left  a  "will" 
behind.  It  was  a  strange  but  beautiful  will 
and  it  read  as  follows : — 

"I  leave  the  children  for  the  term  of  their  childhood 
the  flowers,  fields,  blossoms  and  woods,  with  the  right 
to  play  among  them  freely,  warning  them  at  the  same 
time  against  thistles  and  thorns. 

"I  devise  to  them  the  banks,  the  brooks  and  the 
golden  sands  beneath  the  waters  thereof  and  the  white 
clouds  that  float  over  the  giant  trees  and  long,  long 
days  to  be  merry  in  and  the  night  and  the  moon  and 
the  train  of  the  milky  way  to  wonder  at. 

"To  the  boys  I  devise  the  meadows  with  the  clover 
blossoms,  butterflies  thereof,  the  woods  with  their 
beauty,  squirrels,  birds,  echoes  and  strange  noises,  all 
the  distant  places  that  may  be  visited  together  with 
the  adventures  there  found. 

"And  to  those  who  are  no  longer  children  or  youths 
or  lovers,  I  leave  memory  and  bequeath  them  the 
volumes  of  Burns,  Shakespeare  and  other  poets,  if 
there  be  others,  to  live  over  their  old  days  again  with- 
out tithe.  To  the  loved  ones  with  snowy  crowns,  I 
bequeath  happiness,  old  age,  the  love  and  gratitude  of 
little  children,  until  they  fall  asleep." 

What  gifts  the  dear  old  man  left  in  his  will! 
He  gave  no  money,  no  stocks,  no  bonds,  no 


43        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS  ^ 

gold.  But  he  gave  love  and  sunshine  and  song 
and  happiness  and  we  are  all  his  heirs. 

The  greatest  givers  have  had  no  money  to 
give  away.  Socrates  and  Lincoln,  Shake- 
speare and  Florence  Nightingale  left  no  wealth 
behind  them.  We  remember  too  that  Jesus 
had  no  money  and  yet  he  was  the  world's 
greatest  giver  of  good  gifts.  He  was  home- 
less.     Once  he   said : 

"The  foxes  have  holes  and  the  birds  of  the 
air  have  nests  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not 
where  to  lay  his  head."  He  was  homeless 
and  yet  what  priceless  gifts  he  gave  the  world! 
It  was  he  who  said: 

"I  came 
That  they  may  have  life, 
And  may  have  it 
Abundantly." 

Yes!  It  must  be  true.  The  best  things 
cannot  be  bought  with  money. 


THE  BOY  WHO  BECAME  A  DEACON 

"Come  and  he  cometh." — Matt.  8 :  9. 

HIS  name  was  Tony.  He  was  a  boy 
without  a  country.  His  father  and 
mother  came  from  Italy,  but  Tony 
was  born  on  a  French  ship,  out  on  the  great 
Atlantic.  He  had  played  as  a  boy  under  the 
blue  Italian  sky  and  among  the  bright  Italian 
flowers,  but  like  thousands  of  other  little 
Italian  boys  had  come  to  America  to  win  for- 
tune and  perhaps  fame.  Tony  and  his  father 
and  mother  settled  down  in  the  East  side  of 
New  York,  At  first  the  great  city,  with  its 
noise  and  hurry  made  him  afraid,  but  after 
awhile  he  became  familiar  with  the  streets  and 
he  felt  as  much  at  home  as  if  he  were  in  sunny 
Italy. 

His  father  and  mother  w-ere  loyal  Roman 
Catholics  and  Tony  went  every  now  and  then 
with  them  to  the  great  cathedral  on  Fifth 
Avenue.  One  day  when  he  was  five  years  old, 
one  of  his  playmates  said  to  him.  "Tony,  come 
with  me,"  and  Tony  went,  not  knowing  where 

43 


44        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

he  was  going.  It  was  Sunday  and  when  he 
reached  the  place,  where  do  you  think  he  was  ? 
Well,  he  was  at  a  Presbyterian  Sunday  School. 
That  was  a  strange  place  for  a  little  Roman 
Catholic  boy,  and  Tony  felt  very,  very  strange. 
He  is  not  quite  sure  but  he  thinks  it  was  the 
Madison  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church  Sunday 
School,  for  this  is  a  true  story  and  Tony  is 
now  a  man,  and  if  you  ask  me  about  him,  I 
will  tell  you  his  name  and  where  you  can  find 
him. 

After  awhile  Tony  liked  the  place.  The  mu- 
sic interested  him  and  the  sweet  face  of  the  wo- 
man who  taught  the  class  pleased  him,  and  so 
he  went  back  again  next  Sunday  and  continued 
to  go  back  every  Sunday  until  he  was  twelve 
years  old.  During  those  seven  years  he  learned 
a  great  deal  about  God  and  the  Bible,  and  he 
was  thinking.    He  was  thinking  hard. 

One  Sunday  night  he  slipped  away  from 
home.  It  was  summer  and  the  doors  of  the 
church  were  open  and  Tony  went  in  and  sat 
in  the  back  seat  and  listened.  Just  before  the 
sermon  started,  some  one  sat  down  beside  him 
and  when  he  looked,  it  was  his  mother.  She 
had  missed  him  and  knowing  how  fond  he 
was  of  the  church,  she  had  gone  out  to  find 
him  and  had  found  him  in  the  church.  They 
sat  quietly  through  the  service  for  they  both 


THE  BOY  DEACON  45 

liked  it  and  they  went  again.  They  kept  on 
going  until  the  minister  knew  them,  and  one 
evening  he  called  at  their  humble  little  home 
and  talked  to  the  mother  and  Tony  about  God 
and  his  great  love  for  them. 

This  is  the  way  Tony  became  interested  in 
church  and  one  Sunday  morning  his  mother 
and  he  stood  up  before  the  great  congregation 
and  confessed  their  faith  in  Jesus  as  their  Sa- 
viour. From  that  day  to  this,  Tony  has  never 
missed  church.  When  he  grew  up  he  moved 
away  from  New  York,  but  in  his  new  home  up 
in  New  York  State,  in  a  beautiful  city,  he 
found  another  church  and  he  is  a  Deacon  in 
that  church,  and  a  useful,  helpful,  earnest 
Christian  whom  every  one  loves  and  trusts. 

You  can  never  tell  what  will  happen  when  a 
boy  starts  to  go  to  Sunday  School,  and  per- 
haps the  very  best  thing  you  can  do  is  to  say 
to  some  playmate  or  friend,  "Come  with  me." 
Nobody  knows  the  name  of  the  little  Italian 
boy  who  one  Sunday  morning  said  to  Tony, 
"Come  with  me,"  but  because  he  was  interested 
enough  to  say  it,  there  is  now  in  one  of  our 
churches  a  helpful,  happy  man  whose  life  was 
made  useful  and  happy  by  the  quiet  invita- 
tion of  a  playmate. 

How  glad  we  should  be  that  we  have  Sun- 
day Schools  where  thousands  and  millions  of 


46        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

boys  all  over  our  land  and  other  lands,  can 
learn  about  God's  great  love  for  all  little  chil- 
dren! 

How  do  you  show  your  loyalty  to  your 
church  and  Sunday  School?  Suppose  in  your 
school  there  are  five  hundred  scholars  and  sup- 
pose every  scholar  did  what  was  done  by 
Tony's  friend.  What  would  be  the  result? 
How  many  scholars  would  your  school  have? 
Instead  of  having  five  hundred  you  would  have 
a  thousand.  And  suppose  every  one  of  the 
thirty-five  million  or  more  Sunday  School 
scholars  of  the  world  were  to  do  the  same 
thing  how  many  Sunday  School  scholars  would 
there  be  in  the  world  ?  Can  you  answer  that  ? 
If  you  cannot  perhaps  you  can  try  to  answer 
this  more  simple  question: 

"What  sort  of  school 
Would  our  school  be, 
If  all  the  members 
Were  just  like  me? 


XI 
PLAYING  CHURCH 

"A  little  child  shall  lead  them." — Isa.  ii:6. 

CHILDREN  like  to  play  church.  They 
hke  to  sing  and  they  like  to  preach. 
Some  of  the  world's  great  preachers 
have  played  at  church  when  they  were  very 
young.  Charles  Kingsley  preached  his  first 
sermon  when  he  was  four  years  old.  There 
seems  to  be  a  sort  of  instinct  in  children  for 
preaching,  and  I  wonder  why  more  of  them 
do  not  keep  on  and  become  real  preachers? 

Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  preacher  called  Gipsy 
Smith  ?  Gipsy  is  not  his  real  name,  but  he  was 
born  in  a  Gipsy  camp  and  every  one  calls  him 
Gipsy  Smith.  He  is  a  great  preacher,  a  great 
singer,  and  he  tells  us  how  his  children  used 
to  play  church  and  to  imitate  him. 

One  night  after  he  had  come  home  from  a 
meeting  very  tired  and  it  was  time  for  the 
children  to  be  in  bed,  his  two  boys,  Albany 
and  Hanley,  came  to  their  father's  room  to  say 
good-night.  They  did  not  want  to  say  good- 
night for  they  wished  to  visit  for  awhile 
47 


48        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

with  their  father,  and  so  they  agreed  that  they 
would  have  a  "meeting"  in  their  father's  room. 
When  they  had  kissed  him  good-night,  Al- 
bany said  to  his  brother,  "Hanley,  let's  have 
a  meeting,  let's  sing  'Jesus  Loves  Me  This  I 
Know,'  and  Brother  Gipsy  Smith  will  play  the 
accompaniment."  So  they  all  sang.  Then  the 
little  lad  said,  "Brother  Gipsy  Smith  will  pray." 
You  see,  they  were  making  good  use  of  their 
father.  Gipsy  Smith  kneeled  down  and  prayed 
very  simply  that  God  would  bless  his  two  boys 
and  would  make  them  good  men.  When  the 
prayer  was  over  Albany  said,  "We  will  now 
have  Hanley  Smith's  experience."  So  little 
Hanley  rose  and  said: 

"I  am  only  a  little  sparrow, 
A  bird  of  low  degree ; 
My  life's  of  little  value, 
But  there's  One  who  cares  for  me." 

When  he  sat  down,  Albany  said,  "We  will 
now  have  Brother  Gipsy  Smith's  experience," 
and  so  the  great  preacher  told  how  God  took 
him  from  a  gipsy  tent  and  made  him  a  preacher 
of  the  blessed  gospel  and  urged  his  boys  to 
live  and  speak  for  God  always. 

Albany  had  conducted  the  service  very  well 
and  it  was  now  his  turn  to  speak,  but  with  a 
merry  twinkle  in  his  eye,  he  said,  "Friends, 
the  meeting  is  over,"  and  kissing  their  father 


PLAYING  CHURCH  49 

once  more  good-night,  they  tumbled  off  to  bed. 
Boys  always  tumble  off  to  bed. 

There  are  two  things  to  remember  in  this 
story  sermon.  First, — the  little  boys'  religion. 
It  was  real  and  it  was  simple.  Do  you  know 
the  words  of  the  hymn  from  which  Hanley 
Smith  quoted  ? 

"I  am  only  a  little  sparrow, 

A  bird  of  low  degree; 
My  life  is  of  little  value, 
But  the  Lord  doth  care  for  me. 

"I  have  no  barn  or  storehouse, 

I  neither  sow  nor  reap ; 
God  gives  me  a  sparrow's  portion, 
But  never  a  seed  to  keep. 

*'l  know  there  are  many  sparrows 

All  ovm;  the  world  we're  found : 
But  our  Heavenly  Father  knoweth 
When  one  of  us  falls  to  the  ground. 

"Though  small,  we  are  never  forgotten; 

Though  weak,  we  are  never  afraid; 
For  we  know  that  the  dear  Lord  keepeth 
The  Hfe  of  the  creatures  He  made." 

Second, — the  father's  beautiful  loyalty. 
Next  time  you  play  church,  be  sure  your  father 
plays  with  you  and  be  careful  to  give  him  the 
biggest  part  of  the  meeting.  Playing  church 
is  not  very  interesting  unless  you  have  father's 
help. 


XII 
A  CHRISTMAS  STORY-SERMON 

"God  with  us." — Matt,  i  :  23. 

TWO  A'merican  girls  were  spending  the 
winter  in  the  city  of  Rome.  Their 
parents  were  there  on  business  and  dur- 
ing the  winter  months  Jean  and  Sarah  attended 
the  girls'  school  and  became  very  much  in- 
terested in  art. 

Every  Saturday  morning  they  would  visit 
the  galleries  and  cathedrals  where  the  old  mas- 
terpieces could  be  seen,  and  on  the  following 
Monday  reported  to  their  teacher  what  they 
had  found  and  why  they  were  especially  in- 
terested in  such  and  such  pictures.  They  spent 
day  after  day  in  the  Vatican  museum  where 
they  saw  Raphael's  painting  of  the  Transfig- 
uration which  is  so  familiar  to  us  and  many 
other  wonderful  and  priceless  treasures. 

One  Saturday  they  set  out  to  see  a  painting 

of  which  they  had  often  heard.     It  is  called 

the  Aurora  and  represents  the  chariot  of  the 

sun  coming  up  through  the  clouds  and  driv- 

50 


A  CHRISTMAS  STORY-SERMON    51 

ing  away  the  dark.  It  was  painted  by  an  Ital- 
ian named  Guido  Reni.  He  painted  many  re- 
ligious pictures  but  this  painting  of  the  Aurora 
is  one  that  is  most  familiar.  It  is  a  picture  of 
horses  and  clouds,  youths  and  maidens,  dark- 
ness and  light. 

He  painted  it  in  such  a  strange  place.  He 
did  not  paint  it  on  a  canvas,  nor  on  a  wall, 
but  on  the  ceiling  of  a  wonderful  palace. 

When  Jean  and  Sarah  reached  the  Palazzo 
Rospigliosi,  for  that  is  the  name  of  the  palace, 
they  were  eager  to  see  the  wonderful  painting 
of  which  they  had  heard  so  much  and  seen  so 
many  copies.  They  were  not  disappointed. 
Far  up  in  the  ceiling  they  saw  for  the  first 
time  the  horses  and  the  clouds  and  the  attend- 
ants upon  the  chariot  of  the  sun.  "Aurora" 
you  know  means  the  dawn  and  the  painter  was 
trying  to  show  in  art  how  the  morning  dawn 
came  out  of  the  night.  The  painting  was  far 
more  wonderful  than  they  had  dreamed,  for 
now  they  saw  it  with  all  its  beautiful  colors 
and  its  great  and  golden  background. 

Did  you  ever  try  to  look  at  something  high 
up  above  your  head?  Perhaps  you  have  tried 
to  look  at  a  balloon,  or  an  aeroplane,  or  a  kite, 
or  the  great  stars  far  up  above.  You  know 
how  hard  it  is.  Your  back  gets  tired,  your 
eyes  grow  weary  and  hazy,  and  after  awhile 


52        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

you  can  look  no  longer  and  turn  away  to  rest 
your  eyes  upon  the  ground. 

This  is  just  what  these  American  girls  did, 
but  they  were  very  much  surprised  when  they 
turned  their  eyes  to  see  before  them  the  very 
same  painting  in  all  its  colored  beauty.  How 
could  that  be?  I  will  tell  you.  When  they 
turned  away  to  rest  their  eyes,  they  saw  be- 
fore them  what  they  had  missed  by  their  eager- 
ness. They  saw  a  large  table,  and  the  table 
top  was  one  large  and  splendid  mirror  which 
exactly  reflected  the  painting  on  the  ceiling. 
So  instead  of  looking  up  they  could  stand  be- 
side the  table,  or  sit  comfortably,  and  look  into 
the  mirror,  and  see  all  the  beautiful  painting 
perfectly  imaged  forth. 

What  they  had  tried  to  see  up  in  the  ceiling 
they  now  saw  plainly  before  their  eyes. 

Christmas  is  just  a  mirror.  In  it  we  see  the 
glory  of  God.  For  centuries  the  world  had 
been  looking  up  to  see  God  and  had  grown 
weary  looking  and  then  God  came  down  to 
earth  and  was  born  in  Bethlehem  as  a  little 
child,  and  in  Jesus  we  look  into  the  very  face 
of  God.  Jesus  said,  "He  that  hath  seen  me 
hath  seen  the  Father." 

They  called  his  name  Emmanuel  which 
means,  "God  with  us."    In  Jesus'  face  we  be- 


A  CHRISTMAS  STORY-SERMON     53 

hold  the  glory  of  God.    This  is  what  Christ- 
mas means.    This  is  why  we  sing: 


"O  come 

Let  us  adore  Him 
Christ 
The  Lord." 


XIII 
THREE  PICTURES  OF  A  BOY 

"There  is  a  lad  here." — ^John  6 :  9. 

THE  hero  of  this  story  is  nameless. 
Jesus  took  the  five  rolls  and  the  two 
little  fish  of  this  little  nameless  lad,  and 
fed  the  great  multitude  of  5,000  men,  beside 
women  and  children.  I  have  always  wished 
that  this  boy's  name  had  been  told  us.  Per- 
haps it  was  Stephen,  or  James,  or  Thomas. 
We  do  not  know.  We  do  not  know  where  he 
lived  and  we  do  not  know  what  became  of 
him.  We  only  know  that  he  followed  the 
crowd  around  the  lake  so  as  to  meet  Jesus 
when  he  landed  from  the  boat  on  the  other 
side. 

His  mother,  knowing  how  hungry  boys  get, 
had  prepared  for  him  a  little  lunch  but  he  had 
been  so  interested  in  all  that  was  happening 
that  he  had  forgotten  it  until  he  gave  it  to 
Jesus.  You  remember  the  story.  The  people 
were  so  occupied  by  what  Jesus  had  been 
saying  and  doing,  that  before  they  knew  it 
was  late,  the  evening  had  come  on  and  there 
54 


THREE  PICTURES  OF  A  BOY      55 

was  nothing  for  them  to  eat.  The  disciples 
had  neither  food  nor  money  and  they  were 
about  to  dismiss  the  multitude  when  Andrew 
came  with  the  news  that  he  had  found  a  little 
lad  with  five  small  rolls  and  two  fish.  That 
was  all  he  had  found.  But  Jesus  was  imme- 
diately interested  and  the  boy  was  brought  to 
him. 

What  do  you  think  Jesus  did  ?  He  took  the 
little  lad's  food  and  blessed  it  and  gave  it  to 
his  disciples  and  they  in  turn  gave  it  to  the 
people.  How  proud  and  happy  the  little  boy 
was  when  he  saw  what  had  happened !  He  had 
not  only  been  fed  himself,  but  all  in  the  great 
crowd  had  all  they  could  eat.  What  a  fine 
story  he  would  tell  his  mother  when  he  re- 
turned and  ever  after  he  would  be  pointed  out 
as  the  boy  who  had  given  his  lunch  to  Jesus. 
He  had  not  much  to  give  but  he  had  given 
all  that  he  had  and  Jesus  had  used  his  gift  to 
feed  a  great  multitude.  Jesus  needed  just 
what  that  nameless  little  boy  had  to  give. 

Somewhere  I  have  seen  an  old  picture  of 
three  boys.  The  picture  is  in  three  parts.  The 
one  to  the  left  shows  us  a  boy  with  a  book  in 
his  hand  and  he  is  reading  and  thinking,  and 
the  motto  at  the  bottom  of  the  picture  is  "I 
Learn."  The  one  to  the  right  is  of  a  boy  with 
a  sword  in  his  hand  and  it  has  for  a  motto, 


56        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

"I  Fight."  That  is  a  good  motto.  I  once 
heard  of  a  boy  whose  motto  was,  "I  ain't 
afraid  to  fight  and  I  ain't  afraid  to  pray." 
The  picture  in  the  centre  is  of  a  boy  who  holds 
in  his  hand  a  spade  and  his  motto  is,  "I  Work." 
Those  mottoes  are  good  mottoes  for  boys.  "I 
Learn,"  *T  Fight,"  "I  Work."  I  would  like 
to  paint  a  fourth  picture  of  the  little  lad  who 
followed  Jesus.  He  did  not  have  in  his  hand 
a  book,  or  a  sword,  or  a  spade.  He  had  only 
a  little  lunch,  and  his  motto  was,  *T  Give." 

When  we  think  of  it,  that  too  was  the  motto 
of  Jesus.  He  said,  "I  came  not  to  be  served 
but  to  serve  and  to  give  my  life  a  ransom  for 
many."  This  little  nameless  lad  had  learned 
in  the  presence  of  Jesus  the  true  meaning  of 
life.  We  are  here  not  to  get,  but  to  give.  We 
are  to  serve  others  rather  than  to  be  served 
by  others.  And  this  is  the  beautiful  thing 
about  such  a  life,  that  Jesus  takes  the  little  we 
give  and  multiplies  it  by  a  thousand,  or  per- 
haps a  million. 


XIV 
THE  LITTLE  LAME  PRINCE 

"He  was  lame." — 2  Sam.  9:13. 

THE  Story  of  the  friendship  of  David 
and  Jonathan  is  familiar  to  all  of  us. 
Every  boy  and  girl  knows  how  David, 
the  shepherd  boy,  was  loved  by  Jonathan,  the 
Prince.  The  story  tells  us  that  the  soul  of 
Jonathan  "was  knit"  to  the  soul  of  David. 
Just  as  you  knit  silk  to  silk  and  wool  to  wool 
and  steel  to  steel,  so  the  true,  strong  soul  of 
Jonathan,  the  Prince,  was  knit  to  the  true, 
strong  soul  of  David,  the  shepherd  lad. 

It  happened  that  Jonathan's  father,  Saul, 
hated  David  and  tried  to  kill  him,  but  Jonathan 
warned  David  and  pledged  him  his  love.  He 
went  out  into  the  woods  and  put  his  own 
princely  garments  upon  David  and  told  him 
that  he  would  be  king  over  Israel.  Jonathan 
was  so  much  in  love  with  David  that  he  was 
willing  to  give  him  his  own  right  to  the 
throne.  The  story  is  very  beautiful  and  very 
sad  for  in  time  both  Saul  the  King  and  Jona- 
than the  Prince  were  lost  in  battle  and  David 
57 


58        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

mourned  for  Jonathan  as  he  would  have 
mourned  for  his  own  brother. 

The  years  passed  and  David  was  made  king 
and  the  family  of  Saul  suffered  from  the  hands 
of  David's  friends.  Now  Jonathan  had  a  son. 
He  had  a  long,  long  name.  I  will  spell  it, — ■ 
M-E-P-H-I-B-O-S-H-E-T-H— Mephibosheth. 
When  Jonathan,  his  father  was  killed,  Mephi- 
bosheth was  just  five  years  old.  When  the 
news  came  to  the  palace  that  both  King  Saul 
and  Prince  Jonathan  were  killed,  the  royal 
nurse  picked  up  the  little  Mephibosheth  and 
hurried  off  with  him  to  a  safe  hiding  place. 
But  in  her  hurry,  she  fell  and  the  little  lad  was 
hurt.  He  became  that  day  a  cripple  for  life 
and  ever  after  was  lame  on  both  feet. 

Some  years  after  David  had  been  king,  he 
was  told  about  Mephibosheth  and  sent  for  the 
little  lame  prince.  When  he  saw  the  boy,  he 
loved  him  and  adopted  him  as  his  own  son 
and  Mephibosheth  ever  after  lived  in  the  palace 
and  ate  at  the  king's  table.  I  suppose  people 
envied  him  as  they  saw  him  sitting  at  the  win- 
dow or  riding  in  the  royal  chariot,  but  if  they 
had  known  everything,  they  would  have  felt 
sorry  for  the  little  lad  who  could  not  run  and 
jump  and  play  like  other  boys. 

We  like  to  think  of  David's  kindness  to  the 
little  lame  prince  and  that  the  lad  was  com- 


THE  LITTLE  LAME  PRINCE      59 

forted  by  the  friendship  of  the  king.  He  was 
not  to  be  envied  because  of  his  lameness,  but 
he  might  be  envied  on  account  of  the  king's 
friendship. 

As  I  was  thinking  about  Mephibosheth,  I 
came  upon  these  verses  and  if  they  are  not 
part  of  the  story,  they  are  surely  part  of  the 
sermon. 

"Most  every  day  a  little  boy  comes  driving  past  our 

house 
With  the  nicest  little  pony — just  the  colour  of  a  mouse — 
And  a  groom  rides  close  behind  him,  so  he  won't  get 

hurt,  you  see 
And  I  used  to  wish  the  pony  and  the  cart  belonged 

to  me. 

"I  used  to  watch  him  from  our  porch  and  wish  that  I 

could  own 
His  pony  and  his  little  cart,  and  drive  out  all  alone. 
And  once  when  I  knelt  down  at  night  I  prayed  the 

Lord  that  he 
Would  fix  it  so  the  pony  and  the  cart  belonged  to  me. 

"But  yesterday  I  saw  him  where  he  lives,  and  now  I 

know 
Why  he  never  goes  out  walkin' — 'cause  his   legs  are 

withered  so ! — 
And  last  night  when  I  was  kneelin'  with  my  head  on 

mother's  knee, 
I  was  glad  he  had  the  pony  and  the  cart  instead  of  me." 

A  great  man  has  said  that  if  we  knew  all 
that  was  in  the  heart  of  every  man,  we  would 
envy  no  one.  There  is  a  beautiful  verse  in  the 
New  Testament  which  says,  "Love  envieth 
not."  Can  you  find  where  it  is?  Will  you  try 
to  find  what  it  means  ? 


XV 

THE  HOUSE  BY  THE  SIDE  OF  THE 
ROAD 

"Come  into  my  house." — Acts  16:15. 

WERE  you  ever  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
city?  You  meet  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  people  but  you  know  no  one, 
and  not  one  knows  you.  It  is  a  very  lonely 
feeling. 

It  was  the  way  Paul  felt  when  he  went  to 
Philippi,  the  great  city  which  Alexander  the 
Great  and  Philip  his  father  had  made  famous. 
One  day  he  wandered  out  of  the  big  Roman 
city  down  by  the  river  side  and  there  he  found 
a  group  of  people.  He  had  to  introduce  him- 
self and  then  he  told  them  about  Jesus  and 
after  that  he  had  many  friends.  One  of  his 
friends  was  Lydia,  a  rich  woman  of  Philippi, 
who  opened  her  house  to  Paul  and  his  com- 
panions, and  from  that  home  Paul  carried  on 
his  great  and  wonderful  work. 

Her  home  was  like  the  house  about  which 
Sam  Walter  Foss  wrote.  You  know  what  he 
60 


THE  HOUSE  BY  THE  ROAD      6i 

said  about  "The  House  by  the  Side  of  the 
Road."  Let  me  tell  you  how  he  came  to  write 
those  beautiful  verses.  He  was  taking  a  long 
tramp  through  England.  He  loved  to  walk  in 
the  country  among  the  fields  and  through  the 
little  country  villages.  One  day  he  came  to  a 
long  hard  hill  and  near  the  top  there  was  a 
little  unpainted  house  that  at  first  looked  as  if 
it  were  built  right  on  the  road.  When  he  came 
up  to  the  house,  he  saw  a  queer  little  finger- 
post pointing  in  toward  the  yard  and  under- 
neath was  a  still  more  queerly  painted  sign 
with  the  words,  "Come  in  and  have  a  drink." 
He  was  hot  and  tired  and  the  little  garden 
looked  inviting,  so  in  he  went  and  soon  found  a 
spring  of  ice  cold  water  beside  which  was  an 
old-fashioned  dipper  made  out  of  a  gourd. 
Do  you  know  what  a  gourd  is?  It  is  like  a 
squash.  But  that  was  not  all  he  found.  On  a 
rough  bench  beside  the  spring  was  a  basket  of 
ripe  red  apples  with  another  sign — "Help  your- 
self." He  did  help  himself  and  sat  down  to 
enjoy  both  the  spring  water  and  the  fragrant 
apples. 

By  and  by  an  old  man  came  out  of  the  house 
and  seated  himself  beside  the  visitor  and  the 
old  man  told  how  he  and  his  wife  lived  to- 
gether all  alone  in  the  little  house.  They  were 
too  poor  to  give  money  and  too  old  to  help  in 


62        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

the  good  work  of  the  world,  so  they  took  this 
way  to  help  make  other  people  happy. 

I  think  it  was  a  very  nice  way  and  so  did 
Mr.  Foss,  for  he  began  to  think  about  it  and 
then  he  wrote  the  verses  which  have  been  read 
all  round  the  world. 

"Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road, 

Where  the  race  of  men  go  by, — 
The  men  that  are  good,  the  men  that  are  bad. 

As  good  and  as  bad  as  I. 
Then  why  should  I  sit  in  the  scorner's  seat. 

Or  hurl  the  cynic's  ban? 
Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road 

And  be  a  friend  to  man." 

I  think  the  dear  old  man  and  his  dear  wife 
in  their  dear  little  home  were  doing  just  what 
God  would  like  them  to  do.  They  gave  no 
money  but  they  gave  rest  and  joy  and  happi- 
ness to  those  who  passed  their  house.  It 
would  be  a  more  friendly  world  if  all  of  us 
tried  to  follow  their  example. 


XVI 
A  FIRE  IN  A  COLD  ROOM 

^They  kindled  a  fire." — Acts  28 :  2. 

ONE  of  England's  greatest  men  is  Earl 
Grey.  He  is  a  great  Statesman  and  he 
loves  to  fish  and  roam  in  the  fields  and 
listen  to  the  birds.  When  Theodore  Roosevelt 
went  to  Europe,  Earl  Grey  took  him  out  into 
the  woods  and  told  him  the  names  of  all  the 
birds  that  were  singing  in  the  trees. 

His  father  was  once  the  Governor  General 
of  Canada  and  he  was  a  great  and  good  man. 
One  day  Earl  Grey  was  talking  about  his 
father  and  telling  some  of  his  friends  what 
sort  of  man  he  was  and  this  is  what  he  said. 
He  said  that  his  father  "lighted  so  many  fires 
in  cold  rooms."  I  wonder  if  you  know  what 
he  meant. 

You  know  how  cold  a  cold  room  is  and  how 
nice  and  cosy  it  feels  after  a  bright  warm  fire 
has  been  lighted  in  it.  When  Paul  was  ship- 
wrecked upon  the  island  after  the  awful  storm 
that  destroyed  the  ship,  the  first  thing  the  peo- 
ple of  the  island  did  was  to  light  a  fire.  Paul 
63 


64        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

and  all  his  shipwrecked  friends  were  cold  and 
wet  and  the  fire  was  like  the  gift  of  God  to 
them. 

Well,  there  are  other  kinds  of  fires  besides 
those  that  are  made  with  coal  and  wood  and 
oil  and  gas,  and  there  are  other  kinds  of  cold 
than  frost  and  snow  and  chilly  wintry  winds. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  cold  church.  Peo- 
ple come  and  go  and  are  not  interested  in  one 
another  and  everything  seems  cold  and  dead. 
Then  perhaps  sonie  good  man  or  good  woman 
comes  into  the  church,  or  a  new  preacher,  or 
God  himself  comes  by  his  Holy  Spirit,  and 
there  is  a  "fire"  lighted  in  that  cold  church,  and 
everybody  begins  to  feel  differently  and  to  act 
differently  and  pray  differently. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  cold  person.  We 
talk  sometimes  of  receiving  a  chilly  reception. 
We  know  some  boys  who  seem  to  throw  cold 
water  on  every  plan,  and  we  know  some  boys 
who  like  Earl  Grey's  father  light  fires  in  cold 
rooms.  Whenever  and  wherever  they  come, 
people  feel  happier  and  more  friendly.  It 
was  said  of  Whittier  the  poet  that  "he  never 
darkened  a  day  or  shadowed  a  life."  He  was 
one  of  the  people  who  lighted  fires  in  cold 
rooms.  Would  you  not  like  it  to  be  said  of 
you  that  you  too  lighted  fires  in  cold  rooms  ? 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  cold  heart.    The 


THE  CLOSED  DOORWAY         6;^ 

Holy  Door.  It  is  opened  only  once  in  twenty- 
five  years.  Four  times  in  a  century  the  door 
is  opened  and  through  it  the  Pope  and  all  his 
cardinals  pass  in  all  their  robes  of  state.  Four 
times  in  a  century  the  Pope  approaches  it  with 
a  little  silver  hammer.  He  knocks  three  times 
and  then  the  door  suddenly  opens,  and  he  and 
his  cardinals  enter,  followed  by  the  great  mul- 
titude of  waiting  people  and  they  pass  on  into 
the  great  church  to  worship  and  to  pray. 

Some  of  them  never  entered  through  that 
door  before.  Some  will  never  enter  that  way 
again.  Twenty-five  years  is  a  long  period  and 
before  the  time  comes  round  again  very  many 
of  them  will  be  gone  from  earth  forever. 

The  door  that  leads  into  the  presence  of  God 
is  always  open.  Perhaps  that  is  why  people 
forget  to  pray.  Suppose  the  door  of  prayer 
were  opened  only  once  in  twenty-five  years, 
how  eager  we  would  be  to  crowd  through  that 
open  door  and  make  our  wants  known  to  God ! 
Suppose  we  could  go  to  God  only  once  or  twice 
in  a  whole  life  time,  how  glad  would  we  be 
when  the  time  came !  And  now  when  the  door 
is  always  open  we  forget.  Suppose  God  closed 
the  door  and  said  he  was  too  busy  to  hear  our 
prayer!  That  would  be  terrible.  But  God 
is  not  like  that.  The  door  to  him  is  always 
open  and  if  it  seems  closed  he  tells  us  to  knock 


58        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

and  it  shall  be  opened.  God  never  closes  the 
door.  It  is  we  who  close  the  door,  I  heard 
of  a  little  girl  who  said,  "Mother,  it's  no  use 
telling  me  about  Santa  Claus,  or  about  the 
good  things  I  am  going  to  get  at  Christmas, 
for  up  in  heaven  they  think  I'm  dead."  Her 
mother  was  shocked  and  said,  "Dear,  dear, 
what  do  you  mean?"  "Well,"  said  she,  "I 
haven't  said  my  prayers  for  a  week,  so  they 
must  think  in  heaven  that  I'm  dead."  I  think 
the  little  girl  was  right.  Prayer  is  a  sign  of 
life.  Not  to  pray  is  to  stand  before  a  closed 
door. 


XVIII 

THE  TIMBER  LINE 

"The  child  grew." — Matt,  2:40. 

DID  you  ever  notice  how  the  Bible  speaks 
about  Jesus?  Some  of  the  old  books 
nearly  as  old  as  the  Bible  speak  of  him 
as  a  child  who  worked  miracles  and  as  one 
dififerent  from  other  children.  The  Bible  al- 
ways pictures  him  as  like  other  children.  This 
verse  tells  us  that  he  "grew,"  I  like  to  think 
how  he  looked  when  he  was  just  three  years 
old  and  then  how  he  looked  when  he  was  five, 
and  then  eleven,  and  then  twelve  and  then 
seventeen.  The  Bible  pictures  him  as  a  fine, 
healthy,  normal  boy,  growing  like  other  boys 
in  height  and  weight  and  health. 

Why  should  he  not  grow  ?  Boys  like  plants 
and  trees  grow  when  they  find  the  right  soil 
and  the  right  atmosphere.  Do  you  know  what 
atmosphere  is?  It  is  made  up  of  sunshine  and 
rain  and  fresh  air  and  dew  and  the  fragrance 
of  flowers  and  the  shadows  cast  by  clouds,  and 
the  distance  from  the  equator  and  the  height 
above  the  sea.  That  of  course  is  what  atmos- 
69 


70        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

phere  means  for  flowers  and  plants  and  trees. 
What  does  it  mean  for  boys  and  girls?  Well, 
the  atmosphere  in  which  boys  and  girls  grow 
best  is  made  up  of  love  and  play  and  books  and 
home  and  church  and  music,  and  friendship 
and  prayer  and  God.  You  see,  wealth  and  big 
houses  and  automobiles  and  balloons  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  atmosphere.  And  Jesus  grew 
because  his  atmosphere  was  made  up  of  love 
and  play  and  books  and  home  and  church  and 
music  and  friendship  and  God. 

Have  you  ever  watched  the  trees  on  the  side 
of  a  great  mountain  ?  I  do  not  mean  a  moun- 
tain like  one  sees  among  the  Allegheny  range, 
for  those  mountains  have  trees  growing  up 
the  hillside  to  the  very  top.  I  mean  one  of  the 
mountain  peaks  of  the  Rockies,  At  its  foot, 
the  forest  grows  and  far  up  the  mountain,  the 
trees  are  large  and  tall  but  as  you  go  up  and 
up  towards  the  top,  they  get  smaller  and 
shorter  and  after  awhile  there  are  no  trees  at 
all,  and  the  mountain  top  is  just  bare  rock. 
There  seems  to  be  a  line  beyond  which  the 
trees  do  not  grow.  It  is  called  "the  timber 
line."  There  the  atmosphere  changes  and  be- 
yond the  timber  line  one  finds  only  struggling 
little  stunted  shrubs.  Beyond  the  timber  line, 
the  air  is  too  chill,  too  thin  and  the  summers 
too  short  for  trees  to  grow.    A  student  of  trees 


THE  TIMBER  LINE  71 

and  shrubs  found  far  up  the  mountain  a  little 
tree,  just  two  inches  high.  If  it  had  been  be- 
low the  timber  line,  it  would  have  been  a  forest 
giant.  When  it  was  examined  under  the  micro- 
scope, twenty-eight  rings  were  counted,  which 
means  that  it  was  twenty-eight  years  old.  In 
twenty-eight  years  it  had  grown  only  two 
inches !  The  fault  lay  not  in  the  seed,  nor  in 
the  tree,  but  in  the  atmosphere. 

We  do  not  blame  the  tree.  It  could  not  help 
itself.  But  we  blame  boys  and  girls,  who  are 
satisfied  to  live  in  an  atmosphere  where  they 
cannot  grow.  To  grow  into  good  men  and 
women,  boys  and  girls  need  the  atmosphere  of 
home  and  school  and  church  and  prayer.  In 
this  atmosphere  they  will  "grow  in  grace  and 
in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ." 


XIX 

THE  PREACHER  AND  THE  KING 

"Preach  the  Word." — 2  Tim.  4:2. 

ALEXANDER  McLAREN  was  one  of 
the  great  preachers  of  England.  For 
fifty  years  he  preached  from  the  same 
pulpit  in  the  city  of  Manchester,  and  people 
from  all  over  the  world  went  there  to  hear 
him  preach.  His  sermons  may  be  found  wher- 
ever the  English  language  is  spoken. 

He  used  to  say  the  making  of  good  sermons 
was  such  a  hard  and  difficult  work  that  when 
he  began  to  prepare  a  sermon  he  would  put  on 
his  strong  out-of-door  boots,  because  then  he 
would  feel  he  was  busy  with  a  hard  and  trying 
task.  I  have  heard  of  preachers  making  ser- 
mons with  their  slippers  on  and  lying  on  a 
couch,  but  Alexander  McLaren  put  on  his  big 
heavy  boots  when  he  made  his  fine  sermons. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  be  a  preacher  even 
though  all  preachers  cannot  be  like  Alexander 
McLaren.  His  preaching  was  so  wonderful 
and  so  helpful  that  not  only  people  from  all 
over  England  and  America  went  to  hear  him, 
72 


THE  PREACHER  AND  THE  KING     -jz 

but  the  King  of  England  was  interested  and 
sent  for  him.  What  would  you  think  if  the 
King  or  the  President  sent  for  you?  We  ex- 
pect statesmen  and  politicians  and  business  men 
and  college  Presidents  to  be  sent  for,  but  we 
woqld  scarcely  expect  the  King  or  the  Presi- 
dent to  send  for  a  preacher! 

But  the  king  did  send  for  him  and  the 
preacher  went  to  see  the  king.  When  he  came 
to  the  royal  palace  he  was  taken  right  in  to 
the  presence  of  King  Edward  VH  and  the 
king  told  him  how  happy  he  was  to  see  him 
and  how  glad  he  was  that  he  was  preaching 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  to  the  people.  Alexander 
McLaren  was  then  an  old  man,  but  he  went 
back  from  the  palace  to  his  own  pulpit  younger 
and  happier  because  the  king  knew  that  he 
was  serving  not  only  God  but  the  people  of 
England  and  of  the  world,  when  he  was 
preaching  the  Gospel. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  a  preacher  of  the 
Gospel.  I  wonder  if  any  of  the  boys  who  are 
listening  to  this  story  purpose  in  their  hearts 
to  be  preachers.  Some  day  our  King  will  call 
us  before  him  and  how  happy  we  will  be  if  he 
tells  us  that  he  is  grateful  to  us  because  we 
have  told  others  the  story  of  Jesus.  Some  one 
has  said  that  God  had  only  one  son  and  he 
made  him  a  minister.    I  want  the  boys  to  think 


74        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

about  that  and  to  think  about  Alexander  Mc- 
Laren who  merited  the  king's  favour  because 
he  was  a  preacher.  And  he  found  favour  be- 
cause he  was  true  to  Jesus.  He  preached  not 
for  the  sake  of  preaching,  but  in  order  to  win 
men  to  believe  in  the  Gospel  and  to  turn  from 
their  sins.  It  is  said  of  Cicero  the  great 
orator  of  Rome  that  when  he  spoke  people  said, 
"What  a  fine  orator  is  Cicero!"  but  when  De- 
mosthenes the  orator  of  Greece  spoke  the  peo- 
ple said,  "Let  us  go  and  fight  Philip."  Philip 
was  the  enemy  of  Greece  and  the  people  were 
not  merely  pleased  with  the  fine  sentences  of 
Demosthenes  but  they  were  stirred  to  action 
and  deeds  of  valour.  The  reason  why  King 
Edward  VII  was  interested  in  the  preaching 
of  Alexander  McLaren  was  not  on  account  of 
his  fine  words  and  beautiful  sentences  but  be- 
cause his  preaching  changed  men's  lives  and 
led  them  to  God.  If  you  are  going  to  be  a 
preacher  be  a  real  preacher  and  not  merely  one 
of  words. 


XX 

BUILDING  A  LIFE 
"A  wise  man  who  built  his  house." — Matt.  7 :  24. 

JESUS  was  a  builder.  He  was  a  carpen- 
ter, and  he  knew  how  to  build  well.  He 
knew  what  good  material  meant,  and  he 
knew  that  every  house  must  have  a  good 
foundation.  A  well-built  house  must  rest 
not  upon  shifting  sand,  but  upon  solid  rock. 

It  is  easier,  however,  to  build  a  house  than 
it  is  to  build  a  life.  Writing  from  Africa  to 
his  sister,  David  Livingstone  once  said :  "Oh, 
Janet,  know  thou  that  if  thou  art  given  to 
building  castles  in  the  air,  that  it  is  easy  work 
to  erecting  cottages  on  the  ground."  But  both 
castles  in  the  air  and  cottages  on  the  ground 
are  easy  work  compared  to  building  a  true  life. 
A  true  life  must  be  built  with  a  good  founda- 
tion, of  good  material,  by  a  good  workman, 
and  after  the  plan  of  a  good  architect. 

Jesus  is  a  builder.  He  builds  lives.  He 
knows  how  to  make  a  good,  true,  strong  life. 
If  we  follow  his  plan  we  will  build  well.  Em- 
erson, who  was  one  of  America's  wise  men, 
75 


76        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

tells  us  that  once  when  he  was  visiting  in  New 
Hampshire  he  found  a  large  building  going  up 
in  a  country  town.  He  noticed  that  it  was  a 
sort  of  hit-and-miss  affair,  without  any  plan. 
He  asked  the  man  who  was  working  on  it  the 
name  of  the  architect  who  had  planned  it.  The 
workman  replied,  *'0h,  there  isn't  any  archi- 
tect settled  on  as  yet.  I'm  just  building  it,  you 
see,  and  there's  a  man  coming  from  Boston 
next  month  to  put  the  architecture  into  it." 
There  are  a  great  many  boys  and  girls  who 
are  building  their  lives  just  like  that.  They 
think  that  they  can  throw  their  days  and  years 
together  in  a  sort  of  hit-and-miss,  planless 
way,  and  then  sometime,  somewhere,  some- 
body will  come  along  and  put  the  architecture 
into  their  lives.  They  expect  that  somehow 
or  other,  in  some  strange  way,  they  will  fall 
upon  fortune,  but  it  cannot  be  done.  It  is 
too  late  to  put  the  architecture  in  after  a  build- 
ing or  a  life  is  built.  It  is  too  late  to  plan  one's 
life  after  a  boy  has  become  a  man. 

Do  not  try  to  build  your  life  around  your 
own  plan.  Follow  the  plan  of  Jesus.  He  is 
the  great  Master-builder,  and  he  has  a  plan 
for  your  life.  It  is  all  right  for  you  to  dream 
about  what  you  will  be  and  do  when  you  grow 
up  to  be  men  and  women.  Every  boy  and 
girl  dreams.    I  wonder  if  you  know  the  verses 


BUILDING  A  LIFE  ^7 

— there  are  about  ten  of  them — which  ran 
something  like  this: 

"When  I'm  a  man,  a  man, 
I'll  be  a  carpenter,  if  I  can — and  I  can! 
I'll  plane  like  this,  and  I'll  hammer  so, 
And  this  is  the  way  my  saw  shall  go. 
I'll  make  bird-houses,  and  sleds  and  boats, 
And  a  ship  that  shall  race  every  craft  that  floats, 
When  I'm  a  man, 

"When  I'm  a  man,  a  man, 
A  doctor  I'll  be,  if  I  can — and  I  can! 
My  powders  and  pills  shall  be  nice  and  sweet, 
And  you  shall  have  just  what  you  like  to  eat; 
I'll  prescribe  for  you  riding,  and  saiHng,  and  such; 
And,  'bove  all  things,  you  must  never  study  too  much. 
When  I'm  a  man. 

"When  I'm  a  man,  a  man, 
I'll  be  a  minister,  if  I  can — and  I  canl 
And  once  in  a  while  a  sermon  I'll  make 
That  will  keep  little  boys  and  girls  awake; 
For  ah,  dear  me !  if  the  ministers  knew 
How  glad  we  are  when  they  get  through ! — 
When  I'm  a  man." 

We  must  build  our  lives  not  around  dreams 
only,  but  around  the  plan  and  purpose  of  Jesus 
for  our  lives.  The  great  city  of  London  once 
burned  down.  Fire  swept  over  the  city  and 
burned  itself  out.  It  was  over  three  hundred 
years  ago  and  in  those  days  the  houses  were 
made  of  wood  and  there  was  no  fire  depart- 
ment such  as  we  have  to-day.  When  the  fire 
had  spent  itself,  the  people  began  to  plan  for 
the  rebuilding  of  the  city.  The  old  city  had 
had  narrow  twisted  streets  and  they  thought 


78        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

it  would  be  fine  if  the  new  city  had  straight 
wide  streets.  So  they  got  a  great  architect,  Sir 
Christopher  Wren,  to  plan  the  new  city,  and 
he  did  plan  it  and  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  was  to 
be  the  centre  of  it,  and  great  wide,  beautiful 
streets  were  to  run  from  all  directions  and  lead 
up  to  the  Cathedral.  Everybody  was  pleased, 
but  the  new  city  was  never  built.  The  people 
would  not  build  on  the  new  plan.  They  pre- 
ferred to  build  on  the  old  plan  because  each 
person  wanted  to  build  his  own  new  house  on 
the  same  land  and  in  the  same  place  where  his 
old  house  had  been.  It  is  a  mistake  to  build 
life  on  selfishness.  Build  it  rather  after  the 
plan  of  Jesus  who  builds  not  merely  for  time 
but  for  eternity. 


D 


XXI 

LISTENING  TO  GOD 

"Ears  to  hear." — Rev.  2 :  29, 

ID  you  ever  think  why  you  have  only 
one  mouth?  You  have  two  ears  and 
two  hands  and  two  eyes  and  two  feet, 
and  only  one  mouth.  Did  you  ever  think  about 
it?  Two  feet  to  walk  with,  and  two  hands  to 
work  with  and  two  eyes  to  see  with  and  two 
ears  to  hear  with.  But  you  have  only  one 
mouth.  I  guess  it  means  that  we  should  listen 
twice  as  much  as  we  should  talk.  A  great 
physician  said  the  other  day  that  we  would  be 
less  nervous  if  we  talked  less.  There  is  an 
old  saying  to  the  effect  that  speech  is  silver 
but  silence  is  golden.  God  means  us  to  be  si- 
lent in  his  presence,  so  that  we  can  hear  what 
he  would  say  unto  us. 

The  other  day  I  heard  a  story  about  two 
little  girls.  They  lived  in  the  same  home  and 
they  were  sisters.  One  of  these  little  girls 
was  called  Rachel  and  she  was  eight  years  old. 
The  other  was  called  Esther  and  she  was  six 
years  old.  When  a  mother  calls  a  girl  by  a 
"Sible  name  she  is  apt  to  give  a  Bible  name  also 
79 


8o        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

to  one  of  the  other  girls.  One  day  Rachel  was 
calling  Esther  and  Esther  did  not  want  to  lis- 
ten and  just  like  little  girls  do,  she  put  her 
hands  over  her  ears  so  she  could  not  hear. 
Rachel  kept  on  calling  and  calling  and  speak- 
ing louder  and  louder  until  she  was  nearly 
screaming  into  little  Esther's  hand-covered 
ears.  When  she  could  stand  it  no  longer, 
Esther  said,  "Don't  call  any  louder,  Rachel,  for 
I  can't  hear  you  anyway."  Now,  what  do  you 
think  of  that?  She  had  heard  all  the  time,  but 
pretended  she  had  not  and  so  would  not  an- 
swer. She  had  ears  but  she  did  not  hear  for, 
after  all,  it  is  not  the  ear  that  hears  but  the 
heart. 

I  wonder  if  God  sometimes  calls  to  us  and 
we  put  our  hands  over  our  ears.  You  remem- 
ber how  he  called  to  the  little  boy  Samuel  and 
Samuel  answered,  "Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  ser- 
vant heareth."  God  speaks  to  us  through  our 
teachers  and  our  parents  and  friends.  He 
speaks  to  us  when  we  pray  and  he  speaks  to  us 
through  conscience  which  tells  us  what  to  do 
and  what  not  to  do.  We  should  always  quickly 
answer  as  Samuel  did,  "Speak,  Lord,  for  thy 
servant  heareth." 

"O  give  me  Samuel's  heart, 
A  lowly  heart,  t'i\"Jt  waits 
Where  in  Thy  house  Thou  art, 
Or  watches  at  Thy  gates; 


LISTENING  TO  GOD  8i 

By  day  and  night,  a  heart  that  still 
Moves  at  the  breathing  of  Thy  will." 

Recently  the  Warden  of  Sing  Sing  Peniten- 
tiary— you  know,  I  suppose,  what  Sing  Sing 
is?  It  sounds  as  if  it  might  be  a  music  hall, 
but  it  is  not — well,  the  Warden  of  Sing  Sing 
Penitentiary  once  said  that  he  trembled  to  hear 
a  boy  say,  "I  won't,"  for  he  felt  that  that  boy 
was  headed  for  the  Penitentiary.  If  there  was 
ever  a  boy  who  might  have  been  excused  from 
obedience,  it  was  Jesus,  He  knew  more  than 
his  parents  did.  His  mother  did  not  under- 
stand him.  He  spoke  strange  words,  and  his 
life  was  a  great  mystery  even  to  her.  Most 
boys  think  they  know  more  than  their  parents, 
but  Jesus,  you  know,  was  the  most  wonderful 
boy  that  ever  lived.  It  is  written  about  him 
that  when  he  was  a  little  child,  just  a  little  lad, 
that  he  lived  at  Nazareth  in  his  parents'  home, 
and  that  he  was  obedient  to  them.  The  verse 
says,  "He  was  subject  to  them,"  and  if  we  just 
say  that  he  lived  in  Nazareth  and  was  obedient 
to  his  parents,  we  get  a  picture  of  his  life, 
which  is  full  of  beauty  and  full  of  promise. 

God  has  given  us  ears  so  that  we  may  hear 
him  and  answer  him  and  obey  him. 


XXII 
THE  GLADDEST  DAY  OF  THE  YEAR 

"He  is  Risen." — Matt.  28 :  6. 

THE  gladdest  day  of  the  year  is  Easter 
Day.  I  asked  a  little  lad  of  five  years 
why  Easter  Day  is  the  gladdest,  hap- 
piest day  of  the  year  and  he  said,  "Because 
it  is  Springtime!"  The  little  lad  was  right. 
Easter  is  Springtime,  not  only  in  the  world 
outside,  but  also  in  our  hearts.  It  is  the  day 
of  all  days  when  we  like  to  sing  and  to  hear 
singing,  rather  than  to  preach  and  to  hear  ser- 
mons. 

Easter  is  the  day  when  Jesus  rose  from  the 
dead.  On  Good  Friday  he  hung  upon  the  cruel 
cross.  All  day  Saturday  his  body  lay  in  the 
new  grave  in  Joseph's  garden.  Sunday  morn- 
ing before  the  birds  began  to  sing  Jesus  awoke 
and  stepping  out  of  the  grave,  walked  in  the 
garden  and  waited  for  his  friends  to  meet  and 
greet  him  again.  This  is  why  we  sing  so 
gladly,  "Christ  the  Lord  is  Risen  To-day, 
Hallelujah." 

Rising  from  the  dead  is  more  common  than 


GLADDEST  DAY  OF  THE  YEAR     83 

we  think.  Out  in  the  world  we  see  things  that 
seem  to  rise  from  the  dead.  After  their  long 
winter  sleep,  the  trees  and  flowers  wake  up  and 
come  out  of  their  deep,  dark  hiding  place. 

Did  you  ever  see  a  sleepy  old  caterpillar 
crawling  lazily  along  the  ground  with  its 
brown  or  black  fur  coat  and  its  hairy  hands 
and  feet  ?  It  crawls  for  a  little  while  and  then 
it  falls  asleep.  After  awhile  it  wakes  up  and 
creeps  along  a  little  further  and  then  sleeps 
again.  It  is  old  and  slow  and  so  sleepy  that 
at  last  it  does  not  wake  up  but  sleeps  and 
never  moves.  It  draws  the  covers  over  it  to 
keep  warm,  and  then  settles  down  to  sleep 
a  long,  long  sleep.  It  wraps  itself  up  in  what 
is  called  a  cocoon.  This  cocoon  looks  just 
like  a  coffin  and  the  old  caterpillar  looks  as 
if  it  were  dead.  It  never  moves.  It  lies 
in  its  self-made  grave  for  weeks  and  months 
until  it  is  forgotten.  But  God  does  not  for- 
get it  and  after  a  long,  long  sleep  it  begins 
to  wake  up.  The  covers  fall  off  and  when 
it  really  wakes  up,  what  a  strange  new  thing 
it  is.  It  no  longer  creeps  and  crawls.  It  has 
wings  and  flies.  Instead  of  being  brown  or 
black  or  grey,  it  is  a  glorious  thing  of  beauty, 
perhaps  red  or  white  or  blue  or  orange  or  yel" 
low  or  scarlet,  and  like  something  that  wil? 
never  grow  old,  it  flits  about  from  flower  to 


84        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

flower.    Yes,  it  is  a  butterfly !    But  before  its 
Easter  Day,  it  was  a  sleepy  old  caterpillar. 

And  now  let  me  ask  you  a  question.  How 
did  it  come  about  that  the  caterpillar  rose,  as 
it  were,  from  the  dead?  You  say  God  did  it. 
And  I  say,  yes,  God  did  it  and  God  raised  Jesus 
from  the  dead.  But  how  did  God  do  it  ?  Well, 
it  was  because  the  caterpillar  was  not  dead  at 
all.  It  was  only  sleeping.  It  had  life  in  it  all 
the  time.  And  so  it  was  with  Jesus.  He  was 
not  dead.  His  spirit  had  been  with  God  and 
when  God  chose  he  called  him  back  to  life. 
Jesus  is  called  "The  Prince  of  Life."  He  can- 
not die.  He  lives  forever.  And  because  he 
lives,  we  too  shall  live  with  him.  That  is  why 
Easter  Day  is  the  gladdest  day  of  the  year 
when  nature  sings  and  angels  sing  and  we  too 
sing.    And  this  is  the  song  we  sing : — 

"Hytnns  of  praise  then  let  us  sing 
Unto  Christ  our  heavenly  King, 
Who  endured  the  cross  and  grave, 
Sinners  to  redeem  and  save, 
Alleluia." 


s 


XXIII 
PUSSY  WANTS  A  CORNER 

"Boys  and  girls  playing." — Zech.  8:  5. 

OME  day  when  you  wish  to  ask  your 
father  a  question,  ask  him  to  tell  you  the 
names  of  the  games  he  used  to  play 
when  he  was  a  boy. 

Perhaps  he  will  tell  you  about  some  games 
you  do  not  know.  He  may  tell  you  about 
"shinny"  and  "peg-in-the-hole"  and  "rag" 
and  "duck-on-the-rock,"  and  you  will  be  in- 
terested in  hearing  what  good  times  the  boys 
of  long  ago  used  to  have  over  games  you  do 
not  know  about  and  you  will  also  be  surprised 
that  most  of  the  games  your  father  played  are 
the  same  games  that  you  are  playing.  But  I 
think  the  most  interesting  thing  of  all  is  that 
the  games  our  fathers  and  grandfathers  and 
grandmothers  played  are  just  the  games  they 
are  still  playing,  with  this  difference, — then 
they  played  in  fun  but  now  they  play  in  ear- 
nest. 

First  of  all,  there  is  the  game  of  "Pussy 
wants  a  Corner."  You  know  how  to  play  that 
85 


86        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

game.  There  are  four  corners  and  five  or  six 
boys  and  girls.  There  are  more  children  play- 
ing pussy  than  there  are  corners  and  that  is 
the  game  and  a  fine  game  it  is.  How  boys  and 
girls  scramble  for  a  corner  just  as  they  scram- 
ble for  a  chair  when  they  play  "Going  to  Jeru- 
salem !"  And  that  is  just  what  we  do  all 
through  life.  There  always  seems  to  be  too 
few  places  for  too  many  people  and  each  of 
us  races  and  scrambles  to  win  one  of  the  fa- 
voured places. 

Then  there  is  "Hide  and  Seek/'  or  "I  spy.'* 
That  is  a  good  game  to  play  in  the  evening, 
just  as  the  dark  is  drifting  down  and  the  shad- 
ows help  to  hide  us.  We  can  hide  be- 
hind trees,  or  up  in  the  branches,  or  behind 
stones,  or  in  ditches  or  in  wood  piles,  or  stand 
still  beside  a  fence  post  and  never  move  and 
the  seeker  looks  and  looks  and  never  finds  us. 
And  it  is  the  game  grown-up  men  and  women 
still  play,  for  they  too  are  seeking  for  hidden 
things,  for  treasures  hard  to  find,  for  learn- 
ing, or  position,  for  power  or  friendship,  for 
some  one  to  help  or  some  good  thing  to  do. 
It  is  a  game  that  is  as  old  as  the  world. 

It  would  take  me  hours  to  tell  you  about  all 
the  children's  games.  There  is  "London 
Bridge"  and  "Hide  the  Handkerchief"  and 
"Blindman's     Buff"     and     "Pump-pump-pull 


PUSSY  WANTS  A  CORNER       87 

away."  But  the  best  of  all  the  games  we  play, 
either  as  boys  and  girls  or  as  men  and  women 
is  "Prisoner's  Base."  You  know  how  to  play 
"Prisoner's  Base."  It  is  something  like  "Tag" 
and  is  played  in  many  ways  in  many  lands. 
You  choose  sides  and  have  a  "home  base"  in 
which  all  those  on  your  side  are  safe.  The 
other  side  has  a  "home  base"  too  and,  if  they 
stay  there,  they  are  safe.  But  John  runs  out 
over  the  line  and  Jane  from  the  other  side 
runs  out  after  him  and  if  she  "tags"  him  be- 
fore he  gets  "home,"  he  is  her  prisoner.  So 
the  game  goes  on  faster  and  faster  with  laugh- 
ing and  cheering  until  perhaps  only  George 
is  left  on  one  side  and  all  his  companions  are 
prisoners.  But  George  is  swift  and  fleet  of  foot 
and  he  wins  back  John  and  Betty  and  Tom  and 
when  it  looks  as  if  John  and  Betty  and  Tom 
will  be  caught  again,  George  runs  between 
them  and  their  pursuers  and  the  enemy  has  to 
leave  chasing  them  and  run  after  George  who 
is  too  fast  for  them  and  so  after  awhile  George 
has  won  the  game  for  his  side.  It  is  a  very 
exciting  but  friendly  game.  We  cannot  play 
it  alone.  We  need  strong  friends  and  helpers. 
And  that  is  true  out  in  the  big  game  of  life 
where  our  fathers  and  mothers  are.  They  can- 
not play  the  game  of  life  alone  and  when  our 
turn  comes,  we  too  cannot  play  it  alone.    We 


88        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

need  friends  and  helpers.  Above  all,  we  need  a 
friend  who  is  strong  and  sure.  Such  a  true, 
strong  friend  is  Jesus,  We  can  always  count 
on  him.  If  we  lose  all  and  have  him,  we  can 
still  win.  He  always  wins.  He  never  loses, 
and  we  are  his  friends,  for  he  himself  said : — • 

"I  have  called  you  friends." 


XXIV 

WHEN  LINCOLN  FAILED 

"He  shall  not  fail" — Isa.  42 :  4. 

THERE  is  an  old  saying  to  the  effect 
that  "Nothing  succeeds  Hke  success." 
There  is  much  truth  in  those  words.  A 
big  city  becomes  bigger.  A  rich  man  becomes 
richer.  A  strong  boy  becomes  stronger.  Even 
Jesus  once  said,  "To  him  that  hath  shall  be 
given." 

Suppose  however,  instead  of  saying,  "Noth- 
ing succeeds  like  success,"  we  were  to  say, 
"Nothing  succeeds  like  failure."  Would  that 
be  true?  You  would  surely  say,  "Oh!  No, 
that  cannot  be  true."  But  it  is  true,  and  I  will 
show  you  how  it  is  true. 

Every  one  will  agree  with  me  when  I  say 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  great  success. 
He  was  one  of  America's  greatest  men.  In- 
deed, he  was  one  of  the  world's  greatest  men. 
A  great  British  statesman  recently  said  that 
the  face  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  only  face 
known  to  all  the  world.  And  yet  Abraham 
Lincoln  came  to  his  success  through  failure. 
8q 


90        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

A  great  poet  has  said  that  failure  is  like  a 
"stepping  stone"  to  success,  and  an  American 
poet  has  said  that 

"We  rise  by  the  things  that  are  under  our  feet." 

When  he  was  a  young  man,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln became  a  candidate  for  the  legislature  in 
Illinois  and  was  defeated  by  a  large  majority. 
He  failed.  He  entered  business,  failed  and 
spent  seventeen  years  of  his  life  paying  the 
debts  of  a  worthless  partner.  He  fell  in  love 
with  a  beautiful  young  woman  to  whom  he 
became  engaged  and  when  life  seemed  to  smile 
upon  him,  she  died.  He  became  a  candidate 
for  Congress  and  was  badly  defeated.  He 
sought  an  appointment  from  the  Government 
in  connection  with  the  United  States  Land 
Office  but  failed  in  his  effort. 

He  became  a  candidate  for  the  United 
States  Senate  and  was  again  completely  de- 
feated and  again  he  faced  failure.  In  1856  he 
became  a  candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency  of 
the  United  States  and  again  he  experienced 
failure  and  defeat,  and  later  Douglas  de- 
feated him  in  his  political  campaign  in  Illinois. 

His  life  was  just  one  failure  after  another. 
He  was  defeated  again  and  again,  but  he  never 
gave  up.  He  made  every  failure  a  stepping- 
stone  to  success.     He  knew  he  was  right  and 


WHEN  LINCOLN  FAILED         91 

he  never  allowed  failure  to  discourage  him, 
and  at  last  his  path  led  him  to  the  White  House, 
and  to  the  supreme  place  in  the  hearts  of  all 
the  people. 

Lincoln  was  always  true  to  God,  true  to 
the  people,  true  to  himself,  and  because  of 
this  he  made  failure  the  pathway  to  success. 
This  is  what  Tennyson  meant  when  he  said : 

"I  hold  it  truth  with  him  who  sings 
To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones 
That  men  ma}'  rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 

This  is  why  Isaiah,  the  prophet,  in  speaking 
of  the  coming  Saviour,  said: 

"He  shall  not  fail 
Nor  be  discouraged." 

And  we  all  know  how  Jesus  made  failure 
into  success  and  the  cross  a  stepping-stone  to 
glory. 


XXV 

THE  SIGHTS  OF  A  GREAT  CITY 
"1  saw  the  Holy  City."— Rev.  21 : 2. 

THE  text  says,  *T  saw  the  Holy  City." 
That  is  the  most  wonderful  thing  I 
ever  heard.  I  have  heard  about  peo- 
ple seeing  the  Alps,  and  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, and  Yellowstone  Park,  and  Lon- 
don and  Paris,  and  Niagara  and  Gibraltar,  but 
I  never  heard  before  of  any  one  seeing  the 
Holy  City.  You  know  what  the  Holy  City  is, 
do  you  not  ?  It  is  the  City  where  God  has  his 
home  and  where  all  his  dear  children  expect  to 
be  some  day.    The  Holy  City  is  heaven. 

The  man  who  said  he  saw  the  Holy  City 
must  have  been  a  very  good  and  a  very  happy 
man.  I  am  not  so  sure  about  his  being  happy, 
but  I  am  sure  he  was  good.  Do  you  think  a 
man  who  was  in  prison  could  be  happy  ?  This 
man's  name  was  John  and  he  was  in  prison. 
And  in  such  a  strange  prison !  He  was  on  an 
island — a  very  lonely  island  out  in  the  sea, 
where  he  had  only  the  wild  waves  for  music 
and  the  sea  gulls  for  friends.  The  name  of  the 
92 


THE  SIGHTS  OF  A  GREAT  CITY    93 

island  was  called  Patmos,  and  John  was  put 
there  by  a  bad  and  wicked  king,  because  he 
loved  the  Lord  Jesus. 

While  he  was  there,  all  alone,  listening  to 
the  waves  beating  against  the  rocks,  he  saw 
the  Holy  City  and  he  tried  to  tell  us  what  it 
was  like.  I  expect  he  told  only  half  of  what 
he  saw,  for  you  know  when  you  see  something 
very  beautiful  you  can't  tell  other  people  what 
it  is  like,  for  they  too  must  see  it  for  them- 
selves. You  can't  make  people  see  Niagara, 
or  the  mountains,  or  London  or  New  York  or 
Paris  or  Pekin — they  must  see  it  for  them- 
selves. John,  however,  told  us  enough  about 
the  Holy  City  to  make  us  very  curious.  Some 
day  we  want  to  see  it  for  ourselves. 

Once  when  I  was  going  from  Canada  to 
Chicago,  the  newsboy  went  through  the  train 
crying,  "Chicago  Street  Guide.  Tells  you  all 
about  the  streets.  It  will  show  you  where  you 
want  to  go  and  the  places  you  ought  to  see." 
Quite  a  few  people  bought  the  little  book.  I 
suppose  they  were  strangers  and  wanted  to 
know  how  to  get  about  in  the  great  strange 
city.  That  was  what  I  did  when  I  first  went 
to  Chicago.  No  one  travels  in  a  strange  coun- 
try without  a  guide  or  a  guide  book.  With- 
out a  guide  book  we  might  lose  our  way. 

I  often  wonder  if  some  of  us  will  not  be 


94        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

lost  in  the  Holy  City.  God  has  given  us  a 
guide  book,  but  I  am  afraid  some  of  us  have 
not  studied  it  so  that  we  will  be  familiar  with 
its  strange  people  and  places.  It  tells  us  where 
the  City  is  and  how  to  get  a  Guide  and  by 
what  road  to  travel.  It  tells  us  about  its  streets 
and  its  walls  and  its  gates  and  its  glory.  It 
tells  us  about  the  language  and  the  customs  of 
the  people  and  the  wonderful  music  of  its  or- 
chestra and  the  singing  of  its  choir.  It  tells 
us  about  the  clean  white  robes  and  the  won- 
derful Saviour  whose  beauty  turns  the  night 
into  one  long  day.  If  you  want  to  see  the  City 
don't  forget  to  study  the  guide  book. 

Of  course  the  guide  book  is  the  Bible.  Per- 
haps you  know  the  words  of  the  hymn, — 
"Holy  Bible  Faithful  Guide."  If  you  know  the 
Bible,  then  you  know  Jesus,  you  know  God 
and  you  know  something  about  the  Holy  City. 

You  know  there  are  sixty-six  books  in 
the  Bible  and  one  who  loved  the  Bible  has 
written  these  verses  about  these  sixty-six 
books. 


"Sixty-six  singers,  singing  sweet  and  true. 
And  setting  all  the  world  to  singing  too. 

"Sixty-six  soldiers,  vigorous  and  strong. 
Valiantly  attacking  cruelty  and  wrong. 

"Sixty-six  judges,  learned  in  the  law, 
Uttering    decisions    free    from    fear   or   flaw. 


THE  SIGHTS  OF  A  GREAT  CITY    95 

"Sixty-six  artists — wondrously  they  paint 
Kings  and  sages,  common  folk,  angel,  devil,  saint. 

"Sixty-six  explorers,  keen  to  search  and  find 
All  the  hidden  secrets  of  life  and  death  and  mind. 

"Sixty-six  masons,  marvellously  skilled ; 
One  majestic  temple  they   unite  to  build. 

"Sixty-six  farmers,  planting  holy  seed, 
Happily  upspringing  in  holy  thought  and  deed. 

"Sixty-six  teachers,  keeping  perfect  school, 
Where   faith  the  law  is,  and  love  the  rule. 

"Sixty-six  doctors,  knowing  well  to  cure. 
Masters  of  a  medicine  healing  swift  and  sure. 

"Sixty-six  sailors,  bearing  us  away 
To  a  better  country,  to  a  brighter  day." 


XXVI 

THE  PUZZLE  GARDEN 

"Gardens  and  Parks." — Song  of  Sol.  2 :  5. 

DID  you  ever  hear  of  a  Puzzle  Garden? 
Certainly  not!  Whoever  heard  of  a 
puzzle  garden?  We  know  all  about 
flower  gardens  and  vegetable  gardens  and  old- 
fashioned  gardens  and  even  about  rock  gar- 
dens and  sunken  gardens  where  roses  and  all 
sorts  of  beautiful  flowers  grow,  but  whoever 
heard  of  a  puzzle  garden! 

Well,  I  want  to  tell  you  about  a  real  puzzle 
garden,  for  even  if  you  have  never  heard  of 
such  a  thing  as  a  puzzle  garden,  there  is  such 
a  thing,  only  it  is  not  always  called  a  puzzle 
garden.  Sometimes  it  is  called  a  maze  and 
long,  long  ago  they  called  it  a  labyrinth. 

In  olden  times  when  the  old  Greek  stories 
were  born,  they  often  spoke  of  a  wonderful 
labyrinth  or  maze,  or  puzzle  garden,  in  the 
Island  of  Crete,  and  you  can  read  in  a  fairy 
story  book  about  the  strange  and  terrible  puz- 
zle garden  and  the  awful  monster,  half  man 
and  half  beast,  that  lived  there  and  how  The- 
96 


THE  PUZZLE  GARDEN  97 

seus,  the  Greek  Prince,  with  the  help  of  Ari- 
adne and  her  silken  thread,  killed  the  monster. 
But  that  is  another  story. 

I  have  seen  puzzle  gardens  or  mazes  made  of 
looking  glasses  in  which  you  can  get  lost 
easily  and  wander  round  and  round,  coming 
again  and  again  face  to  face  with  yourself. 
If  you  go  to  London,  to  a  place  called  Hamp- 
ton Court,  you  will  find  a  real  puzzle  garden. 
It  too  is  a  maze  and  in  it  lots  of  people  get 
lost.  They  go  in  through  the  gate  and  follow 
the  path  for  a  little  way  and  then  they  turn 
and  turn  again  and  turn  again  and  then  they 
go  on  and  turn  and  turn  again  and  then  when 
they  want  to  get  out,  they  cannot  find  the  gate 
and  they  go  round  and  round  in  the  garden, 
trying  to  solve  the  puzzle  and  get  out. 

It  is  all  very  interesting  and  very  often  little 
children  and  even  men  and  women  get  all 
"fussed"  about  it,  and  become  excited  and 
impatient  and  then  the  more  they  try,  the  more 
perplexed  they  become.  It  is  not  very  large 
but  they  get  lost  in  it  and  cannot  find  their 
way  out.  When  they  are  just  ready  to  give  up, 
they  hear  a  voice  saying,  ''Right,  left,  left, 
right,"  as  they  come  to  each  turn  in  the  path, 
and  obeying  the  voice,  they  soon  find  them- 
selves out  in  the  open  and  free  from  the  puzzle 
garden.     Then  they  look  up  and  see  a  man 


98        GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

in  a  tower  above  the  garden  who  has  been 
watching  them  all  the  time  and  it  was  his 
voice  that  guided  them  out  into  freedom. 

I  often  think  that  life  is  just  like  a  puzzle 
garden.  The  path  winds  and  winds  and  many 
boys  and  girls  lose  their  way.  No  boy  or  girl 
is  safe  in  the  maze  of  life  without  a  guide.  We 
have  many  guides.  They  are  always  watching 
us.  Our  parents,  our  teachers,  our  friends 
guide  us.  They  are  always  watching  and  their 
voices  are  ever  warning  us.  And  we  always 
have  one  true,  sure  guide.  Jesus  is  our  guide. 
When  we  are  in  danger  of  losing  our  way,  it 
is  his  voice  we  hear.  Like  the  guide  in  the 
tower,  he  too  calls,  "Right,  left,  forward." 
Following  him  we  find  security  and  freedom. 
There  is  a  verse  of  a  familiar  hymn  which 
says: 

"While  life's  dark  maze  I  tread. 
And  griefs  around  me  spread. 
Be  Thou  my  Guide." 

John  Bunyan  began  his  story  of  "The  Pil- 
grim's Progress"  by  speaking  of  this  world 
as  "the  wilderness,"  and  you  will  remember 
that  Christian  often  lost  his  way  but  was  al- 
ways guided  safely  back  into  the  path.  Jesus 
is  our  guide.  He  sees  all.  He  knows  all  and 
if  we  will  hear  his  voice  and  follow  him  we  too 
will  come  at  last  to  the  Palace  Beautiful 


XXVII 
IF  YOU  BECAME  PRESIDENT 

"All  the  presidents." — Daniel  6 :  7, 

EACH  new  President  of  the  United  States 
takes  what  is  called  an  "Oath  of  Office." 
He  makes  a  solemn  promise  that  he  will 
be  true  to  the  laws  of  the  country  and  uphold 
the  government  of  the  United  States.  And  this 
is  the  way  he  makes  his  promise,  or  as  we  say, 
takes  his  "oath."  He  stands  before  the  Chief 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  having  given 
his  assent  to  the  words  of  the  "oath,"  he  kisses 
the  Bible  as  a  pledge  that  the  promise  he  has 
made  will  be  to  him  as  sacred  as  the  Bible  it- 
self. 

Suppose  you  were  to  become  President,  what 
text  or  passage  in  the  Bible  would  you  choose 
as  the  place  your  lips  would  touch?  That  is 
worth  thinking  about  for  there  is  perhaps  some 
boy  not  so  far  away  who  may  some  day  be 
made  President.  I  was  going  to  say  some  boy 
or  girl,  for  who  knows,  now  that  women  are 
managing  our  politics,  whether  or  not  some 
day  we  may  not  have  a  woman  President! 
99 


loo      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

Well,  what  text  would  you  choose  on  the  great 
day  of  your  inauguration  ? 

In  order  to  help  you,  let  me  tell  you  some  of 
the  texts  that  have  been  chosen  by  the  men 
who  have  been  Presidents. 

I  will  start  with  President  Harding.  When 
he  became  President  on  March  4,  192 1,  the 
Bible  lay  open  at  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
place  was  in  the  Book  of  Micah.  Do  you  know 
where  to  find  the  Book  of  Micah  ?  Is  it  one  of 
the  Major  or  one  of  the  Minor  Prophets? 
When  he  kissed  the  page  it  was  at  the  eighth 
verse  of  chapter  six  and  these  are  the  words : — 

"What  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do 
justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with 
thy  God?" 

It  is  a  wonderful  text.  Tennyson  called  it 
the  greatest  definition  of  religion  in  the  world. 
Before  President  Harding  came  President 
Wilson.  He  was  twice  President.  The  first 
time  he  chose  Psalm  119:43-48,  which  be- 
gins :— 

"And  take  not  the  word  of  truth  utterly  out  of  my 
mouth;  for  I  have  hoped  in  thy  judgments.  So  shall 
I  keep  thy  law  continually  for  ever  and  ever." 

When  he  became  President  the  second  time  he 
took  as  his  guiding  message  Psalm  46,  known 
as  Luther's  Psalm,  whose  great  words  are  fa- 
miliar to  all  of  us. 

"God  is  our  refuge  and  strength, 
A  very  present  help  in  trouble." 


IF  YOU  BECAME  PRESIDENT    loi 

Can  you  tell  who  preceded  Woodrow  Wil- 
son as  President  ?  No !  It  was  not  Roosevelt. 
Yes!  It  was  William  H.  Taft,  and  his  mind 
turaed  to  the  interesting  passage  that  tells 
that  when  Solomon  was  made  king  and  was 
asked  of  God  what  he  most  of  all  desired,  he 
said,  "Wisdom."  You  must  read  that  beauti- 
ful story.  And  these  are  the  words  of  Mr. 
Taft's  text  as  found  in  i  Kings  3:9-11. 

"Give  therefore  thy  servant  an  understanding  heart 
to  judge  thy  people,  that  I  may  discern  between  good 
and  bad;  for  who  is  able  to  judge  this  thy  so  great 
a  people?" 

We  have  had  the  texts  of  three  Presidents 
and  they  have  been  all  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Now  we  come  to  Theodore  Roosevelt 
who  was  twice  President,  and  he  chose  a  text 
from  the  New  Testament,  James  i :  22-23. 

"But  be  ye  doers  of  the  word,  and  not  hearers,  only, 
deceiving  your  own  selves." 

These  words  are  just  like  him.  He  was  a 
doer  of  the  word. 

This  story  sermon  will  be  all  too  long  if  I 
keep  on  telling  about  all  the  President's  texts, 
but  I  will  mention  one  or  two  more. 

Next  comes  William  McKinley  who  also 
was  twice  President  and  his  second  text  was 
Proverbs  16:20: — 

"He  that  handled  a  matter  wisely  shall  find  good? 
and  whoso  trusteth  in  the  Lord,  happy  is  he." 


I02      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

The  next  President  was  Grover  Cleveland. 
His  first  text  was  from  Psalm  112:  1-6: — 

"Surely  he  shall  not  be  moved  forever:  the  righteous 
shall  be  in  everlasting  remembrance." 

His  second  passage  was  from  Psalm  91 :  12- 
16:— 

"Because  he  hath  set  his  love  upon  me,  therefore 
will  I  deliver  him:  I  will  set  him  on  high,  because  he 
hath  known  my  name." 

I  will  give  only  one  more,  the  text  of  Gen- 
eral Grant,  but  sometime  again  I  would  like 
to  tell  you  about  Lincoln  and  Washington. 
General  Grant  kissed  the  Bible  at  Isaiah  1 1 : 
2-3:— 

"And  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  him,  the 
spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of 
counsel  and  might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  of  the 
fear  of  the  Lord." 

This  is  a  great  and  a  beautiful  text  for  a  Presi- 
dent to  choose. 

So  you  see  if  you  are  going  to  be  President, 
one  of  the  first  things  you  must  do  is  to  know 
the  Bible.  The  Bible  is  the  President's  Text 
Book.  And  now  just  suppose  you  were  to  be- 
come President — just  suppose!  What  text 
would  you  choose?  If  I  were  to  become  Presi- 
dent, I  would  choose,  .  .  .  well!  but  I  can 
never  be  President  and  so  I  must  leave  you  to 
choose. 


XXXVIII 

THE  BEST  PART  OF  THE  STORY 

"He  must  rise  again." — ^John  20:9, 

HE  was  a  newsboy.  His  name  was 
Thomas  Moore.  It  was  a  good  name 
and  Tom  was  a  good  boy.  He  had 
not  had  much  of  a  chance,  for  he  had  been 
knocked  about  from  house  to  house  ever  since 
his  mother  died  and  at  last  he  called  the  News- 
boys* Home  his  home.  He  was  happy  there 
and  every  Sunday  he  went  to  the  Sunday 
School  held  in  the  gymnasium  and  liked  it. 

He  had  been  selling  his  papers  on  Good  Fri- 
day and  had  done  well.  The  day  was  spring- 
like and  everybody  seemed  to  be  feeling  happy 
and  many  people  were  on  their  way  to  and 
from  church.  He  had  finished  early  and  had 
turned  his  face  homeward  when  a  picture  in 
a  window  caught  his  eye.  It  was  a  picture  of 
Jesus  on  the  cross.  He  looked  at  it  for  a 
long  time  and  wished  he  could  own  it  and  have 
it  hanging  in  his  room.  But  the  pennies  in  his 
pocket  would  never  pay  for  the  price  of  such 
a  wonderful  painting. 

103 


104      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

While  he  was  still  looking,  but  just  about 
to  go,  a  smart-looking  business  man  stopped 
beside  him  and  he  too  looked  at  the  picture. 
Tom  had  seen  the  man  and  knew  that  he  was 
one  of  the  greatest  bankers  in  the  city.  But 
that  made  no  difference.  He  spoke  right  up 
and  said,  "That's  a  picture  of  Jesus,  Mister." 
The  man  nodded  and  Tom  said,  "Them  men 
there  are  soldiers.  They  are  Roman  soldiers." 
The  man  made  no  reply  and  again  Tom  said, 
"That  place  is  Calvary.  That's  the  place  where 
they  killed  him."  The  man  by  this  time  was 
interested  in  the  little  boy  and  said,  "Where 
did  you  learn  that,  son?"  and  Tom  told  him 
how  he  had  learned  it  in  the  Newsboys'  Sun- 
day School. 

Now  it  happened  that  the  man  was  a  Di- 
rector in  the  Newsboys'  Home,  but  he  did  not 
know  about  the  Sunday  School,  neither  did  he 
care  much  about  it,  but  for  some  reason  as  he 
went  away  he  was  very  thoughtful.  Perhaps 
because  it  was  Good  Friday,  or  perhaps  be- 
cause of  Tom's  interested  and  eager  face.  He 
had  not  gone  very  far  till  he  felt  a  hand  on  his 
sleeve,  and  looking  down  saw  Tom,  who  said, 
"Say,  Mister.  I  nearly  forgot  to  tell  you  the 
best  part  of  the  story."  "What  is  that?"  said 
the  man.  "That  he  rose  again,"  said  Tom  with 
a  wonderful  light  in  his  face. 


THE  BEST  PART  OF  THE  STORY   105 

I  do  not  know  what  happened  after  that.  I 
like  to  think  that  the  man  bought  that  wonder- 
ful picture  and  hung  it  in  the  Newsboys'  Home 
and  that  he  became  interested  both  in  Tom  and 
in  the  Sunday  School.  I  do  know,  however, 
that  Tom  told  his  story  well  and  that  he  did 
not  forget  the  best  part.  For  we  would  not 
dare  to  call  the  day  on  which  Jesus  was  cruci- 
fied Good  Friday,  if  it  had  not  been  followed 
by  an  Easter  Day.  The  first  Easter  brought 
gladness  and  every  Easter  Day  brings  joy,  and 
this  is  the  story  of  the  first  Easter : 

"When  therefore  it  was  evening,  on  that  day,  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  and  when  the  doors  were  shut 
where  the  disciples  were,  for  fear  of  the  Jews,  Jesus 
came  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  saith  unto  them. 
Peace  be  unto  you.  And  when  he  had  said  this,  he 
showed  unto  them  his  hands  and  his  side.  The  disci- 
ples therefore  were  glad,  when  they  saw  the  Lord." 

Jesus  means  us  to  think  of  Easter  in  con- 
nection with  the  Cross,  for  Jesus  did  not  die 
to  be  laid  in  a  grave.  He  died  to  rise  again 
and  what  happened  to  Jesus  will  happen  to  us 
if  we  love  him  and  live  for  him.  One  of  his 
great  names  is  "The  Resurrection  and  the 
Life." 


H 


XXIX 
HEARING  AND  THEN  SEEING 

"He  calleth  thee."— Makk  10:49. 

E  was  blind.  That  was  very,  very  sad. 
He  had  never  seen  the  flowers  or  the 
birds,  or  the  sky,  or  his  mother's  face. 
He  was  not  only  blind  but  he  was  poor  and  that 
made  it  still  more  sad.  He  was  a  beggar.  His 
home  was  in  Jericho  and  there  all  the  people 
knew  him.  They  called  him  Bartimaeus,  but 
it  was  hardly  a  name,  for  "Bar"  means  son, 
and  so  his  name  meant  that  he  was  the  son  of  a 
man  named  Timasus.' 

One  day  he  was  sitting  by  the  side  of  the 
road,  begging,  when  Jesus  and  his  disciples 
were  passing  along  the  road  on  their  way  to 
Jerusalem.  Now  Bartimjeus  had  heard  of 
Jesus  and  was  told  that  he  had  made  blind 
men  to  see,  and  when  Jesus  drew  near,  Barti- 
maeus called  to  him,  "Jesus,  thou  son  of  David, 
have  mercy  on  me."  The  people  tried  to  si- 
lence him  but  he  only  cried  the  louder,  and  at 
last  Jesus  heard  him  and  called  him  to  him. 
How  did  he  find  Jesus?  Did  some  one  lead  him 
106 


HEARING  AND  THEN  SEEING     107 

or  did  he  find  Jesus  himself  ?  Perhaps  he  fol- 
lowed the  sound  of  Jesus'  voice, 

I  remember  being  in  Toronto  one  day  when 
there  was  a  great  gathering  of  Boy  Scouts. 
You  know  what  a  Boy  Scout  is.  He  is  very 
smart  and  very  brave.  Well,  there  were  about 
ten  thousand  boy  scouts  in  a  great  park  and 
they  were  all  blind.  Not  really  blind,  but  they 
had  been  all  blindfolded.  They  were  playing 
a  game.  They  were  scattered  all  over  the  park 
and  then  the  Scout  Master  who  stood  on  a  lit- 
tle hill,  blew  a  Avhistle  and  the  boys  started  to 
find  him.  He  always  stayed  at  the  same  place 
and  every  now  and  then  he  would  blow  the 
whistle.  It  was  great  fun  to  watch  the  boys. 
A  few  went  straight  up  to  him.  Some  wan- 
dered back  and  forth  over  the  park,  running 
into  fences  and  trees,  but  all  at  last  found  the 
Scout  Master.  He  was  very  patient.  There 
was  one  little  fellow  who  had  wandered  about 
so  much  that  he  was  tired  and  ready  to  give 
up.  He  was  the  last  to  find  the  Master,  but 
he  did  find  him  at  last  for  the  whistle  seemed 
to  blow  louder  and  louder  and  faster  and  faster 
and  I  half  think  the  wise  Scout  Master  left  his 
place  and  took  two  or  three  steps  towards  the 
little  fellow  as  he  came  blindfolded  up  the  hill. 

Perhaps  Bartimaeus  found  Jesus  in  the  same 
way,  only  Bartimaeus  followed  the  voice.    The 


io8      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

disciples  came  to  him  saying,  "He  calleth  thee," 
and  perhaps  Jesus  kept  on  calling  and  perhaps 
he  too  came  toward  Bartimaeus  until  the  blind 
man  found  the  Master  and  received  from  him 
the  blessed  gift  of  sight. 

If  we  listen,  we  too  may  hear  Jesus  calling 
us.  We  cannot  see  him,  but  he  calls  us  and  we 
can  hear  him.  He  calls  us  every  time  we  read 
the  Bible,  every  time  we  pray,  every  time  some 
one  in  need  asks  us  for  help. 


XXX 

THE  THREE  CHOICES 

"I  offer  thee  three  things:  choose. — 2  Sam.  24:12. 

GOD  gave  David  the  choice  of  three 
things.  It  was  a  choice  of  seven  years 
of  famine,  or  three  months  of  exile, 
or  three  days  of  plague.  What  terrible  .things 
to  choose !  To  choose  any  one  was  to  make  a 
bad  choice.  David  chose  the  plague  and  there 
died  of  the  plague  70,000  men. 

We  are  not  asked  to  make  such  an  awful 
choice.  We  have  always  the  chance  to  choose 
the  lovely  and  the  good.  You  remember  the 
Bible  says  something  like  this, — "I  have  set 
before  you  life  and  death,  the  blessing  and  the 
curse:  therefore  choose  life."  You  see,  we 
must  choose,  but  the  choice  is  between  good 
and  evil,  life  and  death. 

I  know  another  story  in  a  wonderful  book 
about  another  choice  of  one  of  three  things. 

It  is  in  a  story  book  which  some  day  you 

must  all  read.    It  was  written  by  a  great  man 

named  William  Shakespeare  and  it  is  just  a 

little  story  inside  of  a  bigger  story.     The  big 

109 


no      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

story  is  called  "The  Merchant  of  Venice."  I 
see  by  your  looks  that  some  of  you  know  about 
it  already. 

The  little  story  is  about  Portia.  Portia  was 
a  sweet  and  beautiful  young  lady  whom  all  the 
young  men  of  the  country  wanted  to  marry. 
But  Portia  was  wise  and  was  willing  to  wait. 
Her  old  father  when  he  died  made  a  will  and 
promised  his  fortune  to  the  man  who  would 
choose  Portia  after  the  plan  which  he  wrote 
out  in  his  will.  It  was  such  a  strange  odd  plan, 
and  this  is  what  it  was  : — Portia  was  to  put  her 
portrait  in  one  of  three  jewel  caskets  and  the 
young  man  who  chose  the  casket  in  which  she 
had  put  the  portrait  should  be  Portia's  husband. 

The  first  casket  was  made  of  pure  gold  and 
had  this  motto  written  on  it : 

"Who  chooseth  me  shall  get 
What  many  men  desire." 

The  second  casket  was  made  of  silver  and  had 
this  motto : 

"Who  chooseth  me  shall  get 
As  much  as  he  deserves." 

The  third  casket  was  made  of  lead  and  had 
this  motto : 

"Who  chooseth  me  must  give 
And  hazard  all  he  hath." 

It  is  a  very  pretty  story.  The  first  one  to 
choose  was  the  Prince  of  Morocco  and  of 


THE  THREE  CHOICES  iii 

course  he  chose  the  casket  of  gold  and  found  it 
empty.  The  Duke  of  Aragon  came  next  and 
he  chose  the  silver  one,  but  Portia's  portrait 
was  not  in  it  The  third  young  man  was 
Bassanio  and  he  was  secretly  in  love  with 
Portia.  He  read  the  motto  on  the  casket  of 
lead, — 

**Who  chooseth  me  must  give 
And  hazard  all  he  hath." 

And  something  in  his  heart  told  him  that  It 
was  right  to  choose  the  lead,  and  when  it  was 
opened  he  was  overjoyed  to  find  in  it  the  por- 
trait of  Portia. 

These  are  life's  three  choices,  the  casket  of 
gold  is  wealth,  the  casket  of  silver  is  fame, 
the  casket  of  lead  Is  service.  The  one  who 
chooses  either  the  gold  or  the  silver  chooses 
*'to  get"  Their  motto  is  "Who  chooseth  me 
shall  get/'  The  one  who  chooses  the  lead, 
chooses  to  give — "Who  chooseth  me  shall 
give/' 

When  Jesus  came  into  the  world,  he  chose 
to  give  and  he  came  to  give  his  life.  The 
greatest  of  all  the  verses  of  the  Bible  says, 
"God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave."  The 
secret  of  a  happy  life  is  not  to  get  but  to  give. 


XXXI 

THE  LITTLE  FOXES 
"The  little  foxes."— Soaa  of  Sol.  2 :  15. 

SOME  years  ago  when  living  in  the  heart 
of  the  great  city  of  Chicago,  I  looked  out 
of  the  window  and  could  hardly  be- 
lieve that  my  eyes  told  the  truth.  What  do 
you  think  I  saw  ?  No.  It  was  not  a  cow  nor 
a  sheep,  nor  a  flock  of  pigeons,  nor  an  ele- 
phant, nor  a  dog.  It  was  a  fox.  I  had  seen 
foxes  in  the  woods  and  in  the  Zoo,  but  here 
was  a  little,  small,  sly,  sneaking,  red  fox  in 
the  heart  of  the  great  city.  I  opened  the  door 
quietly  and  tried  to  get  near  it  but  it  never 
waited  even  to  look  at  me,  for  in  a  moment, 
like  a  flash  of  lightning,  it  was  gone.  You 
wonder  where  it  came  from.  Well,  I  will  tell 
you.  Near  where  I  lived,  there  was  a  Zoo, 
and  somehow  or  other  that  little  sly,  sneaky- 
fox  had  slipped  out  and  was  taking  a  daylight 
stroll  up  and  down  the  streets  and  in  and  out 
of  the  back  yards  of  the  city  of  Chicago. 

After  it  had  gone  I  began  to  think  about  it 
and  how  sly  and  cunning  it  looked,  and  I  re- 
112 


THE  LITTLE  FOXES  113 

membered  how  the  Bible  speaks  about  the 
little  foxes  that  sneaked  into  the  vineyards  and 
destroyed  the  vines  when  they  were  young  and 
tender.  And  I  recalled  how  Jesus  spoke  of 
Herod  the  King  as  a  "fox,"  because  of  his  sly, 
tricky  and  deceitful  ways. 

Well,  we  are  not  troubled  with  foxes  now, 
and  if  we  want  to  see  one,  we  must  go  to  the 
Zoo  where  they  are  quiet  and  harmless  and  so 
tame  that  the  children  can  almost  touch  them. 

Foxes  are  always  sly  and  tricky  and  not 
all  foxes  are  in  Zoos  or  out  in  the  woods. 
There  are  many  little  foxes  which  have  odd 
queer  names  and  ways  and  get  into  children's 
gardens  and  destroy  the  vines  upon  which 
grow  the  fruit  of  love  and  faith  and  good- 
ness. 

Let  me  tell  you  the  names  of  some  of  these 
little  foxes  that  hurt  the  lives  of  little  chil- 
dren. There  is  the  little  fox  we  call  "Bad 
Temper."  It  is  a  snarly,  sulky,  nasty  little 
fox.  It  hurts  the  happiness  of  other  children 
and  casts  a  cloud  over  the  sky  in  our  own 
homes.  And  then  there  is  the  little  fox  called 
"Deceit."  It  is  a  sly,  sneaky  little  fox.  It 
tries  not  to  be  seen.  It  hides  itself,  but  it  is 
m.ean  and  selfish  and  unkind.  "Lying"  is  an- 
other fox.  I  think  it  is  the  worst  of  all.  There 
is  nothing  that  will  destroy  and  ruin  a  boy  or 


114      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

a  girl  quicker  than  untruthfulness.  Whatever 
happens,  tell  the  truth.  Great  men  have  died 
rather  than  tell  a  lie.  Learn  these  words  by 
heart. 

"Dare  to  be  true. 
Nothing   can   need   a  lie. 
The  fault  that  needs  it  most 
Grows  two  thereby." 

There  are  many  other  little  foxes — a  wHoIe 
pack  of  them, — "Cheating"  is  the  name  of 
one,  and  "Cowardice"  the  name  of  another. 
There  is  one  particularly  sly  fox  called  "Irrev- 
erence" that  destroys  not  only  boys  and  girls 
but  men  and  women.  You  can  name  a  dozen 
more  yourself.  So  you  must  be  on  the  watch, 
and  if  you  succeed  In  keeping  out  the  little  fox 
called  "Lying,"  that  destroys  the  vine  of  truth, 
I  have  good  hopes  that  the  other  little  foxes 
will  not  have  much  chance  in  your  garden^ 


XXXII 

A  LITTLE  BABY  AND  A  GRASS- 
HOPPER 

"And  the  grasshopper." — EccL.  12:5. 

HE  was  chasing  a  grasshopper  and  he 
found  a  baby.  That  is  queer.  Yes,  it 
is  queer,  but  it  is  true.  I  do  not  know 
the  boy's  name  who  chased  the  grasshopper, 
but  I  do  know  the  name  of  the  baby.  It  hap- 
pened many,  many  years,  more  than  three  hun- 
dred years  ago,  and  this  is  the  story. 

A'  little  lad  was  coming  home  from  school 
along  a  country  road.  It  was  summer  time 
and  I  expect  he  was  barefooted  and  bare 
headed  and  happy  hearted.  He  chased  the 
birds  and  the  butterflies  and  at  last  started 
after  a  grasshopper.  My,  how  it  did  jump! 
You  know  grasshoppers  are  nearly  all  legs. 
But  the  boy  was  quick  and  as  it  jumped  quicker 
and  quicker  he  ran  faster  and  faster.  To 
escape  him,  it  leaped  over  the  fence  and  over 
the  fence  he  followed.  But  he  did  not  follow 
far,  for  there  lying  close  to  the  fence  was  a 
heap  of  clothes  and  out  of  the  clothes  peered 


ii6      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

a  little  baby's  face.  It  did  not  cry.  It  just 
looked  and  looked  at  the  boy  as  much  as  to  say, 
"Why  have  you  been  so  long  coming?"  No 
one  ever  knew  where  the  baby  came  from  or 
to  whom  it  belonged,  but  when  the  boy  saw  it, 
right  then  it  belonged  to  him  and  he  gathered 
it  up  in  his  arms  and  took  it  home  to  his 
mother. 

The  little  child  was,  of  course,  nameless. 
No  one  knew  where  it  had  come  from,  but  the 
little  barefoot  boy's  mother  became  the  mother 
of  the  little  fence-corner  baby.  The  baby  was 
a  boy  and  grew  into  a  great  and  a  good  man. 
He  became  rich  and  powerful  and  served  his 
country  so  well  that  he  was  knighted  and  he  is 
known  in  history  by  the  honorable  name  of  Sir 
Thomas  Gresham. 

The  little  boy  had  chased  a  grasshopper  and 
the  grasshopper  led  him  to  where  the  little  baby 
lay  in  the  fence  corner.  Once,  long  ago,  God 
led  the  shepherds  by  a  star  to  where  the  child 
Jesus  lay  in  the  manger  at  Bethlehem.  God 
can  use  a  star  or  a  grasshopper  to  guide  men 
and  children  in  the  way  of  his  will. 

If  you  ever  go  to  London,  right  in  the 
heart  of  that  great  city  you  will  see  a  large 
building  called  the  Royal  Exchange.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  important  buildings  in  the  world. 
It  was  built  in  honor  of  Sir  Thomas  Gresham. 


A  BABY  AND  A  GRASSHOPPER    117 

and  if  you  will  look  up  to  the  very  top  of  the 
building  you  will  see  not  a  rooster  or  a  cross, 
but  a  grasshopper,  and  that  grasshopper  still 
tells  the  story  of  how  a  grasshopper,  guided  by 
God,  guided  a  little  boy  to  a  little  lost  child. 

There  is  a  story  in  the  Bible  about  a  little 
baby  boy  who  was  found  in  a  basket  by  the 
riverside  and  a  princess  found  him  and  he  grew 
up  in  the  palace  and  became  a  wise  and  good 
and  great  man.  Do  you  know  his  name?  God 
has  a  wonderful  way  of  caring  for  little  chil- 
dren. God  needed  this  little  baby  boy  and  so 
he  cared  for  him  and  gave  him  a  home,  for  he 
had  a  great  work  to  do  in  the  world.  And 
God  needs  you.  He  has  some  work  for  you 
to  do.  No  one  can  do  it  but  you  yourself. 
Do  you  know  what  it  is?  I  do  not  know. 
Perhaps  you  yourself  do  not  know.  But  God 
knows  and  some  day  you  will  understand. 


XXXIII 

THE  APOSTLE  WHO  LOVED 
CHILDREN 

"Love  one  another." — i  John  4 :  7. 

THE  text  is  one  which  the  little  children 
learn  in  the  Beginners'  Department 
of  the  Sunday  School.  How  short  and 
beautiful  it  is.  "Love  one  another."  Even 
though  it  is  a  short  text,  it  is  a  very  big  one, 
and  I  know  of  none  so  wonderful  unless  it  be 
another  that  is  very  much  like  it, — "God  is 
love." 

And  the  strange  thing  about  it  is  that  both 
of  these  wonderful  texts  were  written  by  the 
same  man.  Yet  it  is  not  strange,  either,  for 
as  I  said,  they  are  closely  related,  belonging 
almost  to  the  same  family. 

This  little  text  was  given  to  us  by  a  very 
old  man.  His  name  was  John,  and  he  lived 
till  he  was  nearly,  if  not  quite,  a  hundred  years 
old.  When  he  was  a  young  man,  he  met  Jesus 
and  loved  him,  and  .followed  him  and  served 
him  as  his  disciple  through  a  long,  good  life. 
People  knew  him  as  the  man  whom  Jesus 
118 


THE  APOSTLE  WHO  LOVED    119 

loved,  and  there  is  no  more  beautiful  name  than 
that.  We  are  told  that  when  he  was  very  old, 
so  old  that  he  could  not  preach  any  more  and 
could  hardly  walk  or  see  or  talk,  the  people 
who  loved  him  and  loved  to  see  him,  would 
often  lead  or  carry  him  to  the  church  and  lift 
him  into  the  pulpit  so  that  he  could  speak  to 
them  and  they  could  see  him,  for  you  know 
the  sight  of  a  dear,  good  old  minister  is  much 
better  than  a  sermon. 

When  he  was  in  the  pulpit,  he  would  look 
around  the  church  and  then  lift  his  hands  over 
the  people  who  loved  him,  in  order  +0  give 
them  his  blessing,  and  he  always  spoke  the 
words,  "Little  children,  love  one  another." 
Every  Sunday  he  spoke  these  same  words  and 
he  never  would  say  anything  else.  He  was  an 
old  man  and  all  the  men  and  the  women  and 
the  boys  and  the  girls  were  just  little  children 
to  him.  "Is  that  all  ?"  they  would  say.  "Yes," 
he  answered,  "that  is  all.  Love  one  another 
for  love  is  of  God,  and  if  you  love  God  and 
love  one  another,  you  have  done  everything 
that  God  wants  you  to  do." 

Well,  I  might  preach  all  morning  to  you 
about  this  great  text.  But  I  have  only  time  to 
tell  you  one  little  story  about  it.  Some  time 
ago  in  Pennsylvania,  there  was  a  terrible  acci- 
dent.    A  great  dam  that  kept  back  miles  of 


I20      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

water  broke,  and  the  terrible  flood  came  down 
upon  the  little  town  that  nestled  in  the  valley 
below  the  dam.  A  great  many  people  were 
drowned,  among  them  a  lot  of  dear  little  chil- 
dren. Many  people  were  homeless  and  many 
lost  all  they  had.  A  sweet  little  girl,  who  lived 
far  away,  out  in  the  West,  heard  her  father 
and  mother  talking  about  the  children  who  had 
lost  their  homes  and  their  playthings,  and  she 
began  to  think.  So  one  day  she  sent  a  letter 
to  that  little  town  where  the  homeless  little 
children  were,  and  when  it  was  opened,  what 
do  you  think  was  in  it  ?  I  wonder  if  you  could 
guess?  A  lot  of  paper  dolls !  Yes,  paper  dolls 
cut  out  just  like  the  ones  you  have  at  home. 
And  a  letter!  Yes,  a  little  letter  without  any 
name,  and  this  is  what  it  said :  "From  a  little 
girl  to  any  other  little  girl  who  has  lost  her 
dolls." 

That  was  a  little  girl's  way  of  showing  her 
love.  She  sent  what  was  to  her  the  dearest 
thing  she  had — her  paper  dolls.  When  she 
grows  up  and  becomes  a  girl,  she  will  give 
something  dififerent  and  when  she  becomes  a 
woman  she  will  give  something  still  more  help- 
ful. Love  always  gives.  It  gives  service  and 
joy  and  peace,  and  above  all  it  gives  Jesus  and 
the  Gospel  to  all  those  who  do  not  know  him. 


XXXIV 
THE  LITTLE  ANCHOR 

^Aa  anchor  of  the  soul." — Heb.  6 :  19. 

YOU  know  what  an  anchor  is.  It  is  a 
great  steel  beam  with  two  hooks  which 
is  let  down  into  the  water  out  of  the 
ship  and  takes  hold  of  something  at  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  and  holds  the  ship  from  drifting. 
This  man  says  that  he  had  an  anchor  for  his 
soul  which  held  him  in  the  storm.  Sailors,  you 
know,  give  their  anchors  names,  and  this  man 
gave  his  anchor  a  name.  He  called  it  "Hope." 
It  was  hidden  away,  as  all  anchors  are,  where 
you  can't  see  them.  "Within  the  veil,"  he  calls 
it.  It  was  anchored  not  in  the  sea,  where  you 
can't  tell  whether  it  is  in  sand  or  on  rock  or 
stone,  but  in  heaven,  and  he  knew  it  held  his 
soul.  That  is  the  beautiful  way  he  says  his 
hope  in  Jesus  held  him  safe. 

Some  years  ago  a  captain  on  one  of  the  Eng- 
lish vessels  sailing  in  the  ^gean  Sea,  near 
Turkey,  was  caught  in  a  storm.  He  was  off 
a  little  island  that  had  only  an  open  harbour? 
that  is,  no  real  harbour,  but  only  a  place  near 
121 


122      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

the  shore,  but  still  in  the  sea,  across  which  the 
wind  could  sweep.  He  let  down  the  anchor, 
but  the  wind  blew  so  fiercely  that  it  began  to 
drag.  It  could  not  get  hold  of  the  sea  bottom. 
It  could  get  no  grip  on  the  sandy  soil  and 
was  of  no  help  to  hold  the  ship.  Another 
anchor  was  let  down,  but  it  too  refused  to 
take  hold.  Little  by  little  the  ship  was  drift- 
ing nearer  the  shore  and  soon  it  would  be 
stranded.  There  was  only  one  little  anchor 
left  and  they  felt  sure  it  would  be  of  no  use. 
But  they  let  it  down  into  the  dark  waters  and 
what  was  their  surprise  to  find  the  chain 
tighten.  Soon  the  ship  was  held  fast  and  by 
the  help  of  the  little  anchor  outrode  the  storm. 
When  they  lifted  the  anchors,  the  big  ones 
came  up  easily,  for  they  had  never  caught  on 
the  bottom,  but  the  little  one  refused  to  come 
up.  They  worked  for  a  long  time,  and  at  last 
up  it  came.  It  came  very  reluctantly  and  was 
very  heavy.  It  was  clinging  to  something. 
Something  came  up  with  it.  What  do  you 
think  it  was  ?  A  rock  ?  No,.  A  big  fish  ?  No. 
A  whale?  No.  A  clam  shell?  No.  It  was 
another  anchor.  The  little  anchor  had  caught 
in  the  ring  of  the  anchor  of  a  great  "man  of 
war"  that  had  been  lost  there  years  before; 
and  that  was  why  the  little  anchor  held  so 
firmly.    The  great  anchor  of  the  warship  had 


THE  LITTLE  ANCHOR  123 

found  a  piece  of  rock  and  had  gripped  it  so 
tightly  that  when  they  tried  to  raise  it,  it  re- 
fused to  come  up  and  so  they  had  left  it  in  the 
sea.  Perhaps  the  "man  of  war"  was  in  a  hurry 
on  account  of  some  battle  in  which  it  was  inter- 
ested and  cut  the  cable  without  trying  hard  to 
raise  the  anchor.  Anyway,  the  little  anchor 
caught  hold  of  the  rings  of  the  big  anchor 
and  there  it  clung  fast. 

And  now,  you  see  what  a  sermon  there  is 
in  that  story.  The  poorest  sort  of  preacher 
could  preach  a  sermon  from  that  story.  If  a 
very  little  anchor  can  slip  into  the  great  strong 
grasp  of  a  great  "man  of  war"  anchor,  all  the 
great  anchor's  strength  will  be  given  to  the 
little  anchor.  And  if  a  little  child's  faith  slips 
into  the  great  strong  keeping  of  God,  all  God's 
love  and  strength  and  goodness  will  hold  that 
little  soul  safe.  And  if  a  little  child  will  slip 
his  hand  into  the  great  strong  hand  of  Jesus, 
the  strong  hand  of  Jesus  will  hold  him  fast. 


XXXV 

THE  PRINCE  WITH  MANY  NAMES 

"His  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful."— Is  a.  g:  6. 

HOW  many  names  may  one  person  have ? 
I  have  three  names.  And  each  one 
means  something  to  me  and  to  my 
family.  How  many  names  have  you  ?  I  knew 
a  minister  who  had  four  names  and  his  first 
three  names  were  Jeremiah  Prophet  Elijah. 
He  was  a  very  good  man  and  there  was  some- 
thing of  both  Jeremiah  and  the  Prophet  Elijah 
about  him. 

When  I  come  to  think  about  it,  there  is  no 
one  who  has  so  many  names  as  Jesus.  There 
is  a  verse  of  an  old  hymn  which  has  in  it  noth- 
ing but  the  names  of  Jesus. 

"Jesus!  my  Shepherd,  Brother,  Friend, 
My  Prophet,  Priest  and  King, 
My  Lord,  my  Life,  my  Way,  my  End, 
Accept  the  praise  I  bring." 

We  call  him  Jesus  and  Christ  and  Lord  and 
Master  and  Saviour  and  many,  many  other 
names. 

Even  back  in  the  Old  Testament,  when  they; 
124 


PRINCE  WITH  MANY  NAMES    125 

were  looking  forward  to  his  coming,  Isaiah, 
the  prophet,  spoke  of  him  as  a  Prince  whose 
"name  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor, 
Mighty  God,  Everlasting  Father,  Prince  of 
Peace."     What  wonderful  names! 

I  have  read  that  in  one  of  the  Catholic  coun- 
tries of  Europe  there  is  an  old  covered  bridge 
and  at  different  parts  of  the  bridge  there  are 
twelve  symbols  or  images  of  Jesus,  and  before 
the  one  that  means  most  to  them,  people  wait 
and  worship.  The  shepherd  driving  his  sheep 
!waits  before  Jesus  the  Shepherd,  the  farmer 
yraits  before  Jesus  the  Sower;  the  sick  wait 
before  Jesus  the  Physician;  the  sailor  before 
Jesus  the  Pilot;  the  students  bow  before  Jesus 
the  Teacher.  Each  finds  something  in  Jesus 
that  he  needs. 

There  is  an  old  story  which  comes  to  us  out 
of  the  past,  to  the  effect  that  when  the  Wise 
Men  came  to  the  manger  at  Bethlehem,  they 
waited  before  entering.  The  first  to  go  in  was 
an  old  man,  and  he  found  in  the  stable  an  old 
man.  The  second  of  the  Wise  Men  was 
middle  aged  and  when  he  entered  he  found 
there  a  man  his  own  age.  The  third  Wise 
Man  was  young  and  when  he  entered,  he  found 
a  young  prophet  of  his  own  age.  Each  had 
found  the  Saviour  who  answered  to  his  own 
need.     The  story  goes  on  to  say  that  when 


126      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

they  all  entered  together  they  found  the  Child 
Jesus.  Of  course  the  story  is  not  true,  but  it 
has  a  meaning.  It  means  that  Jesus  meets  our 
need  and  that  he  has  a  name  that  suits  each 
one  of  us. 

There  once  lived  in  America  a  man  of  great 
eloquence,  by  the  name  of  Ingersoll,  He  was 
not  a  Christian.  But  some  one  once  asked  him 
what  he  thought  of  Jesus  and  this  is  what  he 
said:  "His  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful, 
because  no  man  ever  dared  to  point  his  finger 
at  the  character  of  Christ  and  find  any  fault 
with  him.  Every  time  I  see  a  rock,  I  remem- 
ber that  he  is  the  Rock  of  Ages.  I  walk  out 
under  the  stars,  I  remember  that  he  is  the  Star 
of  eternal  day.  When  I  come  into  one  of 
God's  temples,  I  remember  that  he  Is  the  Chief 
Corner  Stone.  When  I  walk  the  streets  I  re- 
member that  he  is  the  Way  and  the  Truth  and 
the  Life.  When  I  see  the  birds  in  the  air,  I 
remember  that  he  said,  'Not  one  sparrow  will 
fall.*  The  flowers  tell  me  that  he  is  the  Rose  of 
Sharon,  the  Lily  of  the  Valley.  Wherever  I 
go  and  wherever  I  look,  in  every  land  and  in 
every  city,  the  name  of  Jesus  is  Wonderful." 

There  is  no  one  in  all  the  world  with  so 
many  beautiful  and  wonderful  names  as  Jesus. 


XXXVI 
ASKING  THE  BLESSING 

"In  everything  give  thanks."— 2  Thes.  5 :  18. 

SOMETIMES  the  little  children  of  mis- 
sion lands  are  our  teachers.    It  does  not 
take  them  any  longer  than  little  children 
in  America  or  in  England  to  read  and  pray  and 
work. 

I  was  reading  a  story  about  a  kindergarten 
in  Japan.  You  know  wherever  the  missionary 
goes  the  church  goes  and  wherever  the  church 
goes,  the  school  goes  and  wherever  the  school 
goes,  the  kindergarten  goes,  and  there  the  dear 
little  children  of  other  lands  soon  learn  to  love 
Jesus. 

Well,  in  this  kindergarten  every  day  at 
noon  a  little  lunch  was  served.  Children  like 
to  eat.  I  know  a  kindergarten  connected  with 
one  of  our  missions  where  the  children  get  half 
a  pint  of  milk  every  morning  at  eleven  o'clock. 
In  this  Japanese  kindergarten  when  lunch  was 
ready  and  all  the  children  were  seated  com- 
fortably on  the  floor,  they  would  close  theif 
eyes  and  say  a  little  prayer  like  this: 
127 


128      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

"Bless  this  food  which  now  we  take 
And  make  us  good  for  Jesus'  sake." 

And  then  they  would  open  their  eyes  and  begin 
to  tall^  and  laugh  and  eat  all  at  once,  for  they 
are  just  like  other  children. 

One  evening  at  her  home,  one  of  the  little 
kindergarten  girls  bowed  her  head  over  her 
bowl  of  rice  and  said : 

"Bless  this  food  which  now  we  take 
And  make  us  good  for  Jesus'  sake." 

"What  are  you  doing  ?"  asked  her  surprised 
father  who  loved  her  very,  very  much,  "I'm 
thanking  God  for  this  rice,"  said  his  little 
daughter.  "But  your  mother  cooked  the  rice 
and  prepared  it  for  you,"  said  the  father. 
"Why  do  you  not  thank  her?"  "Yes,  father," 
said  the  little  girl,  "I  do  thank  mother  for 
cooking  it,  but  she  did  not  make  the  rice.  God 
made  the  rice  and  I  am  thanking  him." 

Now  that  was  right,  but  it  sounded  strange 
to  the  father,  and  after  thinking  over  it  for 
some  days,  he  went  to  the  kindergarten  and 
asked  the  missionary  lady  there  what  it  all 
meant.  And  she  told  him.  She  told  him  about 
God's  love  and  care  and  he,  too,  came  to  know 
Jesus  and  now  in  his  home  when  the  rice  is 
served,  all  the  family  bow  their  heads  and 
every  one,  father,  mother  and  children  all  to- 
gether say: 


ASKING  THE  BLESSING         129' 

"Bless  this  food  which  now  we  take 
And  make  us  good  for  Jesus'  sake." 

I  was  telling  this  story  to  a  little  boy  and 
what  do  you  think  he  said  ?  He  said  that  the 
little  Japanese  girl  did  not  say  her  blessing 
right.     He  thought  she  should  have  said: 

"God  is  great  and  God  is  good 
So  we  thank  him   for  our   food. 
In  Jesus'  name.     Amen." 

I  told  him  that  his  blessing  was  just  as  good 
as  the  little  Japanese  girl's,  and  that  her  bless- 
ing was  just  as  good  as  his.  So  he  was  satis- 
fied. And  then  I  told  him  of  other  blessings 
that  people  say  all  together.  At  breakfast  they 
say: 

''Father,  we  thank  Thee  for  the  night 

And  for  the  pleasant  morning  light, 
For  rest  and  food  and  loving  care 
And  all  that  makes   the  day  so   fair." 

And  in  the  evening,  they  say: 

"Lord  Jesus,  be  our  holy  guest, 
Our  morning  joy,  our  evening  rest, 
And  with  our  daily  food  impart 
Thy  love  and  peace  to  every  heart." 

As  long  as  we  thank  God  for  our  food,  the 
words  we  use  do  not  much  matter,  but  I 
wonder  how  many  homes  in  our  country  have 
a  better  blessing  than  this  new  Christian  hom<» 
in  far  Japan? 


XXXVII 
THE  OLDEST  THING  IN  THE  WORLD 

"Love  is  of  God." — i  Jno.  4 :  7. 

WHAT  is  the  oldest  thing  in  the  world? 
When  we  talk  about  something  be- 
ing very  old,  we  say  it  is  as  old  as 
Methuselah.  How  old  was  Methuselah?  He 
was  the  oldest  man  that  ever  lived  and  the 
Bible  tells  us  that  when  he  died  he  was  nine 
hundred  and  sixty-nine  years,  nearly  a  thou- 
sand years  old.  But  there  are  many  things 
older  than  a  thousand  years.  Trees  are  some- 
times older  than  that  and  a  piece  of  coal  is 
thousands  of  years  older.  The  Bible  is  older 
than  a  thousand  years,  so  are  the  mountains, 
and  the  sea  and  the  sky  and  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  There  must  be  something  older  than 
any  of  these  things.  Can  you  guess  what  it  is  ? 
The  other  day,  just  before  Christmas,  I  went 
into  a  big  store  to  see  if  I  could  see  the  oldest 
thing  in  the  world.  Yes!  I  went  to  the  toy 
room  and  watched  the  children.  I  watched  the 
boys  with  the  mechanical  toys  and  the  airships 
and  submarines,  the  wireless  and  the  block  sig- 
130 


OLDEST  THING  IN  THE  WORLD    131 

nal  systems  and  the  walking  elephants,  and  yet 
I  was  not  sure  that  I  saw  the  oldest  thing  in 
the  world.  Then  I  watched  the  girls.  There 
was  one  little  lady  of  six  or  seven  summers  and 
she  was  holding  a  doll  that  had  real  eye- 
lashes, and  folded  her  hands  and  went  to  sleep, 
and  after  I  had  watched  her  for  a  little  while, 
I  knew  that  I  had  found  the  oldest  thing  in  the 
world. 

Can  you  guess?  No!  It  is  not  curiosity. 
No !  It  is  not  play.  It  is  love.  The  love  of  a 
little  girl  for  her  doll  is  older  than  mountains 
or  trees,  or  rocks  or  oceans.  Love  is  the  oldest 
thing  in  the  world  for  God,  who  lived  before 
mountains  or  oceans,  or  trees,  or  dolls,  is  love, 
and  love  is  of  God, 

Let  me  tell  you  how  old  love  is.  The  other 
day  some  men  were  digging  in  an  old  land 
called  Egypt  and  they  found  the  body  of  a 
little  girl.  It  had  been  wrapped  in  spices  and 
linen  so  carefully  that  it  had  not  been  de- 
stroyed and  when  they  unwrapped  the  linen, 
what  do  you  think  they  found  ?  A  little  doll. 
The  little  girl  thousands  of  years  ago  had  loved 
her  doll  just  as  the  children  to-day.  and  thou- 
sands of  years  after,  men  found  the  doll  still 
in  her  arms. 

And  if  you  go  back  and  back  and  back,  be- 
fore the  world  was  made,   and   before   the 


132      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

angels,  you  will  find  love,  for  you  will  find 
God  and  God  is  love.  The  Bible  tells  us  quite 
plainly  that  our  love  is  born  of  God's  love.  It 
tells  us  that  "we  love  because  he  first  loved 
us."  Our  love  for  birds  and  flowers  and  little 
children,  and  for  father  and  mother,  brother 
and  sister,  and  for  God  himself,  is  but  the 
fruit  of  his  great  love  for  us.  When  Nansen, 
the  great  explorer,  was  in  the  Arctic  Sea,  he  let 
out  all  his  sounding  line  and  it  failed  to  touch 
the  bottom.  He  wrote  the  date  and  the  length 
of  the  line  in  his  journal  and  then  the  words, 
"deeper  than  that."  So  it  is  with  the  love  of 
God.  No  one  has  ever  found  its  limit.  It 
is  deeper  than  the  sea.  It  is  as  deep  as  our 
deepest  need  and  his  love  so  redeems  us  that 
we  love  others  because  of  his  love  for  us. 
Whenever  you  see  a  little  girl  playing  with  a 
doll,  remember  that  love  is  not  only  the  great- 
est thing  in  the  world  but  also  the  oldest  thing 
in  the  world. 


XXXVIII 
THE  VALUE  OF  A  BISHOP 
"What  is  man?'— Psalm  8:4. 

THERE  was  once  a  very  interesting  man 
who  was  bishop  of  New  Jersey.  His 
name  was  Bishop  Doane.  A  bishop, 
you  know,  is  a  minister  who  takes  care  not 
only  of  one  church,  but  of  a  great  number  of 
churches.  He  was  a  very  wise  bishop  and 
never  allowed  things  to  get  the  best  of  him. 
He  always  got  the  best  of  things.  He  made 
his  home  at  Burlington  and  travelled  over  the 
country,  but  liked  his  own  home  best. 

One  Saturday  he  was  in  New  York  collect- 
ing money  for  St.  Mary's  College,  in  which 
he  was  much  interested.  When  about  to  leave 
his  hotel  to  catch  the  train,  a  man  called  to 
give  him  some  money  for  the  college.  He 
had  no  time  to  lose,  neither  did  he  wish  to  lose 
the  money,  but  he  decided  to  let  the  train  go. 
He  was  glad  to  get  the  money  but  he  was  sorry 
to  lose  the  train.  When  he  got  to  the  station, 
the  last  train  for  Burlington  was  gone. 

What  could  he  do?  Next  day  was  Sunday 
133 


134      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

and  he  had  to  preach  at  the  dedication  of  a  new 
church,  and  the  last  train  had  gone.  He  re- 
turned to  the  ticket  agent  and  said,  "Is  there 
no  other  train?"  The  agent  replied,  "There 
is  no  other  passenger  train.  The  only  other 
train  is  a  freight  train  which  will  leave  in  an 
hour."  "Then  sell  me  a  ticket  for  the  freight 
train,"  said  the  bishop,  for  he  was  not  ashamed 
to  ride  on  a  freight.  He  could  ride  in  the 
caboose.  Do  you  know  what  that  is?  Or  he 
could  ride  with  the  engineer,  or  on  top  of  the 
train  with  the  brakeman.  He  did  not  care 
where  he  rode,  if  he  only  got  home  for  Sunday 
morning.  But  the  agent  shook  his  head,  say- 
ing the  freight  carried  freight  only  and  not 
passengers.  "Then,"  said  the  bishop,  "send  me 
as  freight."  That  was  an  odd  thing  to  say, 
but  the  agent  did  not  know  what  to  say  in  re- 
ply, and  so  the  dignified  bishop  stepped  on  the 
scales  and  was  weighed.  I  do  not  know  how 
much  he  weighed  but  he  paid  for  himself  at  so 
much  a  pound  and  after  paying  the  charges, 
which  were  much  less  than  a  ticket,  he  was  put 
on  board  the  freight  train  and  shipped  as 
freight  to  Burlington  and  next  morning  he 
preached  and  was  none  the  worse  for  his 
strange  ride. 

Well,  we  like  the  bishop  all  the  better  for  his 
humour  and  his  good  sense  and  above  all  for 


THE  VALUE  OF  A  BISHOP     135 

his  pluck  and  perseverance.  But  after  all,  no 
man,  much  less  a  bishop,  can  be  classed  as 
freight.  We  cannot  be  weighed  and  valued 
by  the  pound.  Jesus  once  asked  this  interest- 
ing question:  "How  much  better  is  a  man 
than  a  sheep?"  He  did  not  try  to  answer  his 
own  question  because  a  man  and  a  sheep  can- 
not be  valued  in  the  same  way.  The  Psalmist, 
looking  up  at  the  stars  in  the  sky,  said,  ''When 
I  consider  thy  heavens,  the  work  of  thy  fingers, 
the  moon  and  stars  which  thou  hast  ordained, 
what  is  man?"  And  then  he  replied,  "Thou 
hast  made  him  but  little  lower  than  God  and 
crownest  him  with  glory  and  honour."  So  you 
see,  men,  women  and  little  boys  and  girls  can- 
not be  classed  as  freight  because  they  are  chil- 
dren of  God.  They  are  immortal  souls  and 
one  little  child  is  worth  more  than  all  the 
world.  If  you  placed  the  life  of  a  little  child 
on  one  side  of  the  scales,  and  all  the  gold  in 
the  world  on  the  other  scale,  the  little  child 
would  outweigh  in  value  all  the  gold  in  all  the 
world.  Do  you  remember  what  Jesus  said, 
"What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  own  life?"  We  are 
worth  so  much  to  God  that  he  gave  Jesus,  his 
only  beloved  Son.  to  die  upon  the  cross  for  us. 
A  little  child  is  worth  more  to  God  than  the 
sun,  and  the  moon,  and  all  the  stars  together. 


XXXIX 
PLAYING  THE  GAME 

"Boys  and  girls  playing." — Zech.  8:  5. 

DURING  the  Great  War,  the  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  huts  in  France  were  very  interest- 
ing. There  were  American  and  Brit- 
ish and  French  Y.  M.  C.  A.  huts  and  each  one 
had  its  own  pretty  decorations.  In  the  French 
huts  one  would  see  beautiful  French  war 
posters  and  in  the  American  huts  American 
posters.  In  the  British,  among  the  British  war 
posters,  there  was  always  one  printed  sign 
which  all  who  entered  could  see.  It  was  in 
every  British  hut.     It  was  printed  like  this: 

Live  clean. 
Talk  clean. 
Fight  clean. 
Play  the  game. 

Every  British  soldier  was  expected  to  live 
in  the  army  and  so  to  fight  as  a  soldier  that 
when  the  war  was  over  he  could  say  that  he 
had  lived  clean,  talked  clean,  fought  clean, 
and  that  he  had  played  the  game.  It  is  a  good 
motto  and  it  can  be  used  in  peace  as  in  war. 
136 


PLAYING  THE  GAME  137 

Live  clean.  The  soldier  was  expected  to 
keep  himself  fit.  He  was  to  avoid  eating, 
drinking,  or  doing  anything  that  would  make 
him  unfit  for  service.  It  was  his  duty  to  keep 
his  mind  pure  and  his  body  pure  and  his  con- 
duct pure.  The  Bible  tells  us  that  our  bodies 
are  the  temples  of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  Let  us 
make  his  dwelling  place  clean  and  pure. 

Talk  clean.  To  talk  clean  is  to  speak  kindly, 
and  to  tell  the  truth.  When  a  boy  uses  bad 
language  or  profane  words,  or  tells  a  lie,  he 
has  forgotten  to  talk  clean.  When  the  people 
heard  Jesus  they  were  surprised  at  the 
"gracious  words"  which  he  spoke. 

Fight  clean.  The  German  soldier  did  not 
fight  clean.  He  was  cruel  and  unfair.  He 
fought  helpless  women  and  little  children.  He 
sent  them  adrift  in  open  boats  upon  the  stormy 
sea.  The  American  and  the  British  soldier 
fought  clean.  Now  that  the  war  is  over  there 
are  still  many  things  which  we  must  fight.  We 
can  fight  evil  and  sin  and  poverty  and  igno- 
rance and  in  peace  as  in  war  we  are  to  fight 
even  evil  with  clean  hands  and  pure  hearts. 

Play  the  game.  The  best  thing  about  a  game 
is  not  winning  it  but  playing  it  fair.  A  good 
player  is  as  good  a  loser  as  he  is  a  winner, 
and  all  our  games  are  meant  to  teach  us  to 
play  fair,  to  keep  sweet,  to  lose  cheerfully  and 


138      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

to  praise  whoever  wins.  Life  is  the  greatest 
game  of  all  and  we  live  best  when  we  keep 
sweet  and  true  and  kind  even  when  things  go 
wrong.  The  boy  who  plays  the  game  sings 
this  song: 

"It  is  easy  enough  to  be  merry 
When  things  go  along  with  a  song 
But  the  boy  worth  while  is  the  boy  who  smiles 
When  everything  goes  dead  wrong." 

Perhaps  you  can  print  the  words  of  this  motto 
and  hang  it  in  your  room  where  you  can  see 
it  every  day. 

Live  clean. 
Talk  clean. 
Fight  clean. 
Play  the  game. 


XL 

IN  VERDUN 
"Things  that  cannot  be  shaken." — Heb.  12:28. 

EVERY  one  who  knows  about  the  Great 
War  knows  about  Verdun.  Verdun 
lay  between  France  and  Germany  and 
against  that  city  and  fortress  all  the  power 
of  the  German  Army  and  all  the  skill  of  the 
German  staff  were  gathered  so  that  the  Crown 
Prince  might  gain  a  great  victory,  and  having 
taken  Verdun  open  the  gates  for  Germany  to 
enter  France. 

One  of  the  longest  and  bloodiest  battles  of 
the  war  was  fought  at  Verdun.  Around  the 
hills  of  Verdun,  I  saw  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  graves,  but  the  French  courage  never 
faltered.  They  said,  "They  shall  not  pass," 
and  for  months  the  French  held  the  city  until 
Germany  was  driven  back  defeated. 

But  Verdun  was  ruined.  It  had  been  under 
shell-fire  for  weeks,  had  been  set  on  fire  by 
incendiary  bullets  and  had  burned  for  days 
until  only  ruin  was  left.  When  I  entered  it  in 
the  sprino^  days  of  1918,  it  was  a  deserted  city. 
Only  a  few  French  soldiers  kept  guard.  The 
streets  were  desolate.  Not  one  house  was 
139 


I40      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

standing  unharmed.  Stores  and  shops, 
churches  and  monuments  were  ruins.  The 
French  officer  who  was  responsible  for  our 
being  there,  quietly  led  us  to  the  top  of  the  hill 
to  the  great  old  cathedral  which  had  stood  since 
the  eleventh  century.  The  roof  was  gone,  the 
windows  destroyed.  The  day  before  a  Ger- 
man shell  had  ploughed  its  way  through  the 
roof  of  the  chancel  and  buried  itself  in  the 
marble  floor.  It  was  a  scene  of  utter  ruin. 
No  priest  was  there.  Only  a  French  soldier 
kept  his  silent  vigil.  I  remember  the  hands  of 
the  clock  in  the  half-ruined  tower  pointed  to 
ten  minutes  to  three.  There  seemed  to  be  noth- 
ing left  that  had  not  been  touched  by  bomb 
or  shell.  There  was,  however,  one  thing  that 
was  not  harmed.  It  had  escaped.  The  great 
high  altar  that  rested  on  four  beautifully  pol- 
ished porphyry  pillars  was  untouched  by  fire 
or  shell.  It  had  come  through  the  war,  un- 
harmed. I  have  often  wondered  since  about 
that  high  altar.  The  altar  you  know  stands 
for  religion,  for  worship,  for  prayer  and  serv- 
ice and  God.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that 
the  high  altar  in  the  old  ruined  cathedral  o£ 
Verdun  preached  a  sermon  to  all  who  saw  it 
standing  there  unharmed. 

And  this  is  the  sermon :     There  are  many 
things  that  caix  be  destroyed.     Cathedrals  and 


IN  VERDUN  141 

palaces,  castles  and  towers,  towns  and  cities 
can  be  destroyed.  Kings  and  nations,  railroads 
and  ships,  farms  and  vineyards  can  be  de- 
stroyed, but  there  are  some  things  that  cannot 
be  harmed.  There  are  some  things  that  can- 
not be  shaken. 

The  love  of  God  cannot  be  either  shaken  or 
destroyed.  The  war  destroyed  more  than  we 
can  tell.  It  destroyed  houses  and  lands  and 
kings  and  emperors.  It  destroyed  our  faith 
in  men  whom  we  once  trusted,  but  it  did  not 
destroy  our  faith  in  the  love  of  God.  Through 
all  the  pain  and  the  cruelty  of  the  war  we 
knew  that  God's  best  word  to  us  is  the  word 
of  the  cross,  which  tells  us  that  God  is  love. 

The  Word  of  God  cannot  be  shaken  or  de- 
stroyed. Heaven  and  earth  may  pass  away, 
but  God's  Word  can  never  pass  away.  When 
Henry  M.  Stanley  set  out  to  find  David  Liv- 
ingstone, he  carried  with  him  one  hundred 
and  eighty  books.  After  he  had  travelled 
three  hundred  miles  into  the  interior,  he  left 
some  of  the  books  behind.  They  were  too 
heavy.  As  he  journeyed  further  and  further 
inland,  his  books  became  less  and  less  and  at 
last  he  had  only  one  book  left.  It  was  the 
Bible.  The  Bible  is  the  only  book  that  lasts. 
It  lasts  because  it  is  the  Word  of  God.  It  is 
one  of  the  things  that  cannot  be  shaken. 


XLI 

'A  FRENCH  PATRIOT 
"/*  is  more  blessed  to  give." — Acts  20:35. 

DURING  the  Great  War  every  one 
learned  to  love  and  admire  France.: 
She  was  so  strong,  so  heroic,  so  brave, 
I  remember  standing  in  the  quiet  cemetery  of 
the  little  village  of  Mailly,  and  counting  one 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  new-made  graves. 
Each  grave  was  marked  with  a  white  cross  and 
on  some  of  the  crosses  was  the  French  word, 
"petite,"  which  means  little  and  is  used  as  a 
pet  name  for  one  who  is  loved.  Many  of  those 
who  had  died  in  the  war  were  just  boys, 
"petite"  soldiers,  and  yet  they  were  brave  like 
heroes  for  the  land  they  loved. 

Near  the  same  little  village  I  heard  a  story 
of  a  French  lad  who  had  died  in  battle  early 
in  the  war.  He  had  run  away  from  home  and 
entered  the  army,  and  in  his  first  battle  he 
was  killed.  In  one  of  his  pockets  they  found 
a  piece  of  paper  neatly  folded.  He  had  writ- 
ten it  himself  and  called  it  "My  Creed."  You 
know  what  a  creed  is.  We  repeat  the  Apostles* 
142 


A  FRENCH  PATRIOT  143 

Creed,  which  begins,  "I  beHeve  in  God  the 
Father  Almighty."  Well,  the  French  boy's 
creed  was  shorter  than  the  Apostles'  Creed. 
It  was  very  short.  It  contained  only  one 
sentence  and  this  was  what  it  said,  "I  give  my 
body  to  the  ground,  my  soul  to  God,  my  heart 
to  France."  I  do  not  know  where  he  got  it. 
Perhaps  he  made  it  himself,  but  when  he  died 
they  found  this  creed  in  the  pocket  of  his  uni- 
form. There  was  no  doubt  about  what  he  lived 
for  and  died  for. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  have  a  creed,  to  be- 
lieve in  something  for  which  we  are  ready  to 
die.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  know  the  Apostles' 
Creed  and  to  believe  in  the  things  which  are 
contained  in  its  great  words.  I  like  the  creed 
of  the  little  French  boy  very  much.  It  is  all 
about  giving.  It  is  short  and  real  and  I  wonder 
if  we  could  not  change  it  a  little  so  as  to  suit 
not  war  but  peace  and  not  France  only,  but 
our  own  land.  Suppose  we  say,  "I  give  my 
body  to  the  work,  my  soul  to  God,  my  heart 
to  my  home  and  to  my  country."  This  short 
creed  contains  three  things.  It  contains  the 
thought  of  work.  No  one  can  have  a  good, 
true  life  without  work.  An  idler  Is  worse  than 
a  thief.  Jesus  said,  "My  Father  worketh  and 
I  work."  It  contains  the  thought  of  God,  and 
no  life  can  be  right  that  forgets  God.    The  first 


144      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

sentence  of  the  Bible  says,  "In  the  beginning 
God,"  and  that  should  be  the  motto  of  every 
life.  It  contains  also  the  thought  of  love, — 
love  of  home  and  love  of  country,  and  no  one 
can  have  a  complete  life  who  lives  and  thinks 
only  for  himself.  These  three  great  words 
make  life  sweet  and  true :  Work,  God,  Love. 
There  is  a  great  painting  called  "The 
Angelus."  Perhaps  you  have  seen  copies  of 
it.  It  is  a  picture  of  a  young  man  and  a  young 
woman  out  in  the  field  where  they  have  been 
working,  bowing  reverently  in  prayer  as  they 
listen  to  the  church  bell.  There,  too,  we  have 
these  three  great  words.  The  picture  tells 
about  work,  about  love,  and  above  all  about 
God.    Let  us  remember  the  words : — 

"I  give 
My  body  to  the  work, 
My  soul  to  God, 
My  heart  to  my  home 
And  to  my  country." 


XLII 

THE  LITTLE  COMPANION 
"The  Shadow  of  Peter." — Acts  S  :  15. 

1HAVE  a  friend  who  is  the  pastor  of  a 
great  church  in  the  city  of  Baltimore, 
and  he  has  a  little  boy  called  Ernest.  He 
is  a  bright  little  fellow  and  plays  by  himself 
a  great  deal.  He  is  not  the  little  boy  who 
wished  he  were  "two  little  puppies  so  that  he 
could  play  together."  He  has  learned  to  play 
by  himself  and  gets  along  very  well.  He  plays 
with  trains  and  blocks  and  engines  and  balls 
and  has  a  nursery  where  he  has  things  all  his 
own  way.  Boys  like  to  have  things  their  own 
way.  They  are  very  much  like  girls  in  that. 
One  morning  when  the  sun  was  shining  in 
through  the  nursery  w^here  Ernest  was  play- 
ing by  himself,  his  father,  who  was  in  his  study 
in  a  room  nearby,  heard  him  running  round 
and  round  the  room,  knocking  things  over  and 
making  a  terrible  fuss.  He  paid  no  attention 
however  until  the  lad  began  to  cry,  and  then  he 
hurried  to  the  nursery.  Ernest  was  standing 
in  the  middle  of  the  room  crying  as  if  his 
145 


146      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

heart  would  break.  When  he  saw  his  father 
he  stopped  crying  and  pointing  to  the  wall  said, 
"There  he  is.  He  won't  leave  me.  He  has 
been  following  me  all  over.  Tell  him  to  go 
away.  I  hate  him."  His  father  did  not  know 
what  was  the  matter  and  thought  the  boy  was 
sick.  "Who  is  it?"  he  asked,  and  pointing  to 
the  wall  again  the  boy  said,  "There  he  is.  He 
won't  go  away." 

What  do  you  think  it  was  ?  Well,  it  was  the 
little  boy's  own  shadow.  He  had  never  before 
seen  his  shadow,  and  in  the  bright  room  it 
seemed  to  him  like  another  boy  following  him 
round  and  round,  teasing  him,  going  where  he 
went,  stopping  when  he  stopped,  pointing  his 
finger  at  him  when  he  pointed  his  finger,  and 
stamping  his  foot  and  getting  angry  when  he 
stamped  his  foot.  That  is  the  way  a  shadow 
acts. 

"I  have  a  little  shadow  that  goes  in  and  out  with  me, 

And  what  can  be  the  use  of  him  is  more  than  I  can  see. 

He  is  very,  very  like  me  from  the  heels  up  to  the  head ; 

And  I  see  him  jump  before  me,  when   I  jump  into 

my  bed. 

"He  hasn't  got  a  notion  of  how  children  ought  to  play. 

And  can  only  make  a  fool  of  me  in  every  sort  of  way. 

He  stays  so  close  beside  me,  he's  a  coward  you  can  see; 

I'd  think   shame  to   stick  to   nursie  as   that   shadow 

sticks  to  me !" 

Ernest  had  a  wise  and  good  father,  who 
took  him  on  his  knee  and  told  him  that  what 


THE  LITTLE  COMPANION       147 

he  saw  was  just  himself.  It  was  just  a  pic- 
ture of  himself  made  by  the  sunlight.  It  did 
just  what  he  did  and  went  where  he  did.  And 
then  he  told  him  that  it  was  just  like  a  little 
companion  and  was  his  best  friend.  When  he 
played  it  would  play  with  him  and  when  he 
was  naughty  his  little  companion  would  be 
naughty  too. 

Whether  we  can  see  our  shadow  or  not,  one 
thing  is  sure  and  that  is,  you  and  I  must  live 
with  ourselves.  We  must  keep  company  with 
ourselves.  It  is  wise,  therefore,  to  see  that  this 
companion,  who  is  always  with  us,  is  true  and 
pure  and  strong.  And  there  is  another  thing 
that  is  also  sure  and  that  is,  each  one  of  us 
casts  a  shadow  which  either  helps  or  hinders 
some  one  else.  The  shadow  of  Peter  brought 
healing  and  comfort  to  those  who  were  in 
need.  In  the  Bible  we  often  read  about  God's 
shadow  and  how  it  protects  and  helps  us.  God 
calls  us  to  take  refuge  under  his  shadow.  "He 
that  dwelleth  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most 
High  shall  abide  under  the  shadow  of  the  Al- 
mighty." In  one  of  the  Psalms  there  is  offered 
this  beautiful  prayer,  "Be  merciful  unto  me, 
O  God,  be  merciful  unto  me;  For  my  soul 
taketh  refuge  in  Thee:  yea,  in  the  shadow  of 
Thy  wings  will  I  take  refuge."  Jesus,  him- 
self. Is  spoken  of  as  "the  shadow  of  a  mighty 


148      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

rock."  Jesus'  shadow  is  just  Jesus  himself, 
and  our  shadow  is  a  picture  of  ourselves  cast 
by  sunlight  and  reveals  us  just  as  we  are.  If 
we  are  true  and  strong  and  Christlike,  so  will 
the  shadows  we  cast  be  true  and  strong  and 
Christlike. 

There  is  one  thing  we  always  should  re- 
member about  shadows.  Where  there  is  no 
sunshine  there  can  be  no  shadow.  The  clearer 
and  stronger  the  light,  the  deeper  and  clearer 
the  shadow.  Shadows  speak  of  reflected  light. 
When  we  stand  in  God's  sunlight,  then  the 
shadows  we  cast  will  be  strong  and  clear. 
We  are  told  that  after  the  disciples  had  spoken 
for  Jesus,  in  Jerusalem,  their  enemies  knew 
by  their  words  and  their  high  courage,  that 
they  "had  been  with  Jesus." 


XLIII 

GREATER  THAN  ALEXANDER 
"Behold  my  hands." — Luke  24 :  39. 

EVERY  boy  and  girl  has  heard  of  Alex- 
ander   the    Great.      He    was    a    great 
soldier.     It  is  said  of  him  that  he  con- 
quered  the   whole   world,   and   wept  because 
there  was  no  other  world  to  conquer. 

He  had  many  friends  and  each  one  tried 
to  do  more  than  any  one  else  to  honour  him. 
The  greatest  architect  of  that  day  planned  to 
carve  out  of  the  great  mountain  near  the  royal 
city  a  statue  of  Alexander.  He  planned  to 
carve  Mount  Athos,  which  is  over  six  thousand 
feet  high,  into  a  statue  of  the  king.  The  left 
hand  of  this  great  statue  was  to  hold  a  real 
city  of  ten  thousand  people,  and  the  right 
hand  was  to  hold  a  beautiful  inland  lake  which 
would  receive  the  waters  of  the  mountain  and 
then  pour  them  out  into  the  sea.  Of  course 
his  plan  was  never  worked  out.  Perhaps  it 
could  not  be  worked  out.  It  was  too  big,  too 
difficult,  too  odd.  But  the  very  plan  showed 
what  the  architect  thought  of  Alexander. 
149 


ISO      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

But  Jesus  is  mightier  than  Alexander.  No 
statue  carved  out  of  the  world's  highest  moun- 
tain could  show  forth  his  power.  He  who  was 
once  a  little  child  has  become  the  world's  great- 
est conqueror.  He  holds  in  his  hand  all  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world.  The  sea  is  his  and 
he  made  it.  All  power  is  given  unto  him  in 
heaven  and  in  earth.  The  Christ  Child  has 
become  the  King.  He  holds  the  world  in  the 
hollow  of  his  hand  and  all  things  are  his. 

Does  Jesus  hold  you  in  his  hand?  Do  you 
belong  to  him  ?  Martin  Luther  once  said,  "If 
any  one  knocks  at  the  door  of  my  heart  and 
says,  'Who  lives  there  ?'  I  will  answer,  'J^sus 
Christ  lives  here,  not  Martin  Luther.' "  Can 
you  say  that?  Do  you  belong  to  him?  Does 
he  hold  your  little  life  in  his  strong  hand? 
One  of  the  old  writers  once  said  :  "The  needle's 
point  in  the  seaman's  compass  never  stands 
still,  but  quivers  and  shakes  till  it  comes  right 
against  the  North  Pole.  The  Wise  Men  of  the 
East  never  stood  still  till  they  were  right 
against  the  star  which  appeared  unto  them,  and 
the  star  itself  never  stood  still  till  it  came  right 
against  that  other  Star  which  shone  more 
brightly  in  the  manger  than  the  sun  did  in  the 
firmament ;  and  Noah's  dove  could  find  no  rest 
for  the  sole  of  her  foot  all  the  while  she  was 
fluttering  over  the  flood,  till  she  returned  to  the 


GREATER  THAN  ALEXANDER  151 

ark  with  an  olive  branch  in  her  mouth.  So  the 
heart  of  every  true  Christian  can  find  no  rest 
till  Christ  puts  forth  his  hand  and  receives  her 
to  himself." 

There  is  a  hymn  we  sometimes  sing  about 
Jesus  holding  our  weak  hand  in  his  strong 
hand : — 

"Hold  Thou  my  hand ;  so  weak  I  am,  and  helpless, 
I  dare  not  take  one  step  without  Thy  aid ; 
Hold  Thou  my  hand ;  for  then,  O  loving  Saviour, 
No  dread  of  ill  shall  malce  my  soul  afraid. 

"Hold  Thou  my  hand;  and  closer,  closer  draw  me 
To  Thy  dear  self — my  hope,  my  joy,  my  all; 
Hold  Thou  my  hand,  lest  haply  I  should  wander. 
And,  missing  Thee,  my  trembling  feet  should  fall. 

"Hold  Thou  my  hand;  the  way  is  dark  before  me 
Without  the  sunlight  of  Thy  face  divine; 
But  when  by  faith  I  catch  its  radiant  glory. 
What   heights   of   joy,   what    rapturous    songs    are 
mine !" 


XLIV 

THE  ICE  THAT  MADE  FIRE 
"Fire  came  down  from  God." — Rev.  20 : 9. 

THE  Bible  is  full  of  stories  about  fire. 
God  guided  the  children  of  Israel 
through  the  wilderness  by  a  pillar  of 
fire.  On  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  Holy  Spirit 
came  like  tongues  of  fire.  The  New  Testa- 
ment speaks  of  God  as  a  consuming  fire  and 
our  Hymnal  gives  us  the  words: 

"Come  as  the  fire ;  and  purge  our  hearts, 

Like  sacrificial  flame : 
Let  our  whole  soul  an  offering  be 
To  our  Redeemer's  Name." 

In  another  of  our  beautiful  hymns  we  ask  God 
to 

"Kindle  a  flame  of  sacred  love 
In  these  cold  hearts  of  6urs." 

You  know  how  hard  it  is  to  kindle  a  fire  with 
cold  fuel,  and  we  wonder  how  God's  great  love 
can  kindle  into  a  flame  in  our  cold  worldly 
hearts.     But  it  can,  and  it  does. 

I  was  reading  a  wonderful  story  about  Sir 
153 


THE  ICE  THAT  MADE  FIRE      153 

John  Franklin.  You  know  he  was  one  of  the 
first  men  who  tried  to  discover  the  North  Pole 
and  to  find  a  passage  through  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
The  story  of  his  noble  life  and  tragic  death  is 
one  of  the  most  heroic  stories  in  history.  He 
perished  up  in  the  frozen  north  with  his  com- 
panions, and  years  after  his  bones  were  found 
and  beside  the  bones  some  books  and  one  of 
the  books  was  the  Bible. 

What  a  cold,  cold  world  it  was!  But  Sir 
John  Franklin  was  a  wise  man  and  he  knew 
a  great  deal  about  the  sea,  and  the  stars,  and 
the  ice,  and  the  great  sun,  and  one  day  he  took 
a  piece  of  cold,  clear  ice  and  cut  it  into  the  form 
of  a  lens. 

You  know  what  a  lens  is.  A  lens  is  usually 
made  of  glass.  The  glass  in  a  pair  of  spec- 
tacles is  a  lens.  The  glass  in  a  microscope  or  a 
telescope  or  in  a  camera  is  a  lens.  It  is  shaped 
so  that  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  gathered  up  by 
it  into  one  spot.  Well,  Sir  John  Franklin,  far 
up  in  the  frozen  north,  made  a  lens  not  out  of 
glass,  but  out  of  cold,  hard  ice  and  then  he 
held  it  to  the  sun  and  the  rays  of  the  sun  were 
gathered  up  by  the  lens  of  ice  into  one  spot, 
so  that  after  awhile  when  a  piece  of  paper 
was  held  over  that  spot  it  became  so  hot  that 
the  paper  began  to  burn  and  from  the  paper  a 
fire  was  lisrhted.     Is  not  that  wonderful!    Of 


154      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

course  if  you  try  to  do  it,  your  ice  will  melt 
before  your  paper  will  burn. 

But  that  is  not  as  wonderful  as  something 
else  I  know  about.  It  is  not  as  wonderful  as 
the  warm  love  of  God  coming  into  my  cold 
heart  and  making  it  burn  with  love  for  him. 
That  is  a  more  wonderful  thing.  Do  you  re- 
member the  story  of  the  young  man  who  went 
up  to  the  temple  with  a  cold  heart  to  a  cold 
service,  and  while  the  service  was  going  on, 
suddenly  God  came  to  him  and  touched  his  lips 
with  a  coal  of  fire,  and  said,  "Lo,  this  hath 
touched  thy  lips;  and  thine  iniquity  is  taken 
away  and  thy  sin  purged."  And  then  his  heart 
took  fire  and  when  God  called  for  helpers  he 
cried  out,  "Here  am  I,  send  me,"  God  is  like 
fire.  He  cleanses  and  purifies.  He  warms 
and  comforts. 


XLV 
I  NEVER  KNEW  HIS  NAME 

"The  deaf  ear." — Matt.  11:5. 

1HAVE  heard  boys  sometimes  discussing 
among  themselves  whether  they  would 
rather  be  deaf  or  blind.  It  is  an  odd  ques- 
tion. Of  course  we  are  very  glad  we  do  not 
need  to  choose  and  can  go  on  enjoying  the 
sights  and  the  sounds  of  God's  beautiful  world. 

There  is  something,  however,  worse  than 
being  either  deaf  or  blind.  You  say  that  is 
impossible.  What  can  be  worse  than  being 
blind  or  deaf  ?  W^ell,  I  can  easily  answer  that 
by  saying  it  is  worse  to  be  both  blind  and  deaf 
at  the  same  time. 

And  that  was  the  way  with  Helen  Keller. 
You  have  heard  about  Helen  Keller.  She  was 
born  both  deaf  and  blind  and  yet  she  so  over- 
came both  her  deafness  and  her  blindness  that 
she  not  only  entered  Harvard  University,  but 
completed  her  course  and  graduated  with  the 
praise  and  good-will  of  thousands  of  her 
friends  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  deaf, 
155 


156      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

you  know,  learn  to  read  by  signs,  and  the  blind 
learn  to  read  by  touch,  but  how  could  one  both 
deaf  and  blind  learn  anything  at  all,  much  less 
learn  to  read  ?  Well,  Helen  Keller  had  a  wise 
and  patient  and  kind  teacher  who  held  her  hand 
and  little  by  little,  by  the  touch  of  her  hand, 
taught  her  a  few  things  and  then  more  and 
more  until  her  mind  became  awake.  It  was 
like  spelling  out  messages  by  signals.  After 
the  signals  were  mastered,  everything  else  be- 
came easy. 

After  years  of  patient  work  and  study  her 
teacher  decided  that  Helen  should  be  told 
something  about  God.  What  could  she  know 
about  God?  She  had  never  seen  his  name  or 
heard  it.  She  had  never  heard  a  hymn  or  a 
sermon,  or  seen  a  church.  What  would  you 
know  about  God  if  you  had  lived  all  your 
childhood  in  a  dark,  silent  room. 

One  day  there  came  to  her  home  a  great, 
good  man  by  the  name  of  Phillips  Brooks. 
He  was  a  bishop  and  was  kind  and  wise  and 
gentle.  And  Phillips  Brooks  sat  down  beside 
Helen  Keller  and  her  teacher,  and  the  teacher 
told  Helen  by  means  of  signs  on  her  hands 
what  Bishop  Brooks  said  about  God,  and  his 
great  love  for  us,  how  he  made  the  world  and 
cares  for  us  as  his  own  dear  children.    When 


I  NEVER  KNEW  HIS  NAME      157 

he  had  finished  his  first  lesson  she  looked  up 
with  her  sightless  eyes  and  said,  *'0h,  Mr. 
Brooks,  I  knew  all  that  before,  but  I  never 
knew  his  name."     Was  that  not  wonderful? 

How  did  she  know  about  God?  Who  had 
told  her?  As  far  as  her  friends  and  her 
teacher  knew,  no  one  had  ever  said  anything 
to  her  about  God.  Yet  she  knew  about  God, 
but  did  not  know  his  name.  How  do  you  ac- 
count for  that? 

Well,  God  has  many  ways  in  which  he  can 
speak  to  us.  He  does  not  need  to  speak  in 
English  or  French  or  Latin.  He  can  speak  to 
our  hearts  by  his  Spirit.  We  can  feel  him 
and  love  him  and  know  him  because  he  re- 
veals himself  to  us  by  his  own  Holy  Spirit  in 
his  own  secret  and  wonderful  way.  When 
Paul  met  Jesus  on  the  road  to  Damascus,  he 
did  not  know  him.  He  said,  "Who  art  thou. 
Lord,"  and  a  voice  said,  "I  am  Jesus."  When 
God  appeared  to  Moses  in  the  wilderness, 
Moses  heard  no  voice  and  saw  no  form,  he 
only  saw  a  flaming,  burning  bush,  and  then 
when  he  drew  near  God  spoke  to  him  and  re- 
vealed himself  to  him.  God  is  always  nearer 
than  we  think.  In  him  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being.  He  speaks  in  his  own  way 
to  all  his  children. 


158      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

"Speak  to  him  for  he  hears 
And  spirit  with  spirit  may  meet, 
Closer  is  he  than  breathing 
Nearer  than  hands  or  feet." 

There  is  no  one  who  has  not  heard  God's  voice 
for  his  Spirit  abides  in  all  his  children. 


XLVI 
THE  LIGHT  IN  THE  WINDOW 

"Neither  slumber  nor  sleep." — Ps.  121 :  4. 

EVERY  boy  and  girl  knows  about  Rob- 
ert Louis  Stevenson's  "A  Child's 
Garden  of  Verses,"  which  has  so  many 
pictures  little  children  love.  He  was  a  great 
story  teller  and  everybody  loves  a  story  teller. 
It  was  he  who  wrote  about  "The  Land  of 
Nod,"  that  strange  country  which  children 
visit  in  their  sleep  and  in  their  dreams. 

"From  breakfast  on  through  all  the  day 
At  home  among  my  friends  I  stay, 
But  every  night  I  go  abroad 
Afar  into  the  land  of  Nod. 

"All  by  myself  I  have  to  go. 
With  none  to  tell  me  what  to  do — 
All  alone  beside  the  streams 
And  up  the  mountain  sides  of  dreams. 

"The  strangest  things  are  there  for  me, 
Both  things  to  eat  and  things  to  see, 
And  many  frightening  sights  abroad 
Till  morning  in  the  land  of  Nod. 

"Try  as  I  like  to  find  the  way, 
I  never  can  get  back  by  day, 
Nor  can  remember  plain  and  clear 
The  curious  music  that  I  hear." 

159 


i6o      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

But  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  when  he  was 
a  little  boy  did  not  always  visit  the  land  of 
Nod  when  dark  came  down  upon  the  land. 
Sometimes  all  night  long  he  stayed  in  the  Land 
of  Wide-Awake,  for  he  was  a  delicate  little 
lad  and  often  ill  and  sometimes  all  through 
the  night  his  old  Scotch  nurse  kept  watch  with 
him  waiting  for  the  dawn  to  come  in. 

He  used  to  say  that  it  was  his  old  nurse 
that  made  him  a  poet  and  a  writer,  for  in  the 
night  she  would  tell  him  such  wonderful  stories 
and  set  his  mind  on  fire.  He  tells  us  that  often 
in  the  night  when  he  could  not  sleep  she  would 
wrap  him  in  a  blanket  and  carry  him  to  the 
window  and  they  would  look  out  over  the 
great  sleeping  city  of  Edinburgh  and  she 
would  point  to  the  lighted  windows  here  and 
there  and  tell  him  that  perhaps  there  were 
other  little  boys  who  were  ill  and  could  not 
sleep,  and  she  would  show  him  the  stars  and 
tell  him  they  too  were  God's  lighted  windows 
and  that  God  never  slept,  but  kept  watch  over 
all  the  dear  little  children  who,  like  himself, 
were  watching  for  the  day-dawn.  Then  they 
would  look  out  into  the  dark,  for  a  long  time, 
without  speaking,  and  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
would  think  about  those  other  little  sleepless 
boys  who  perhaps  did  not  have  a  kind  nurse 
and  as  happy  a  home  as  he  did,  and  after  a 


THE  LIGHT  IN  THE  WINDOW     i6j 

little  his  eyes  would  begin  to  close  and  before 
he  knew  he  had  fallen  asleep  and  was  tucked 
away  in  bed. 

I  often  think  of  those  lighted  windows  in 
the  night.  They  are  always  there.  If  some 
night  you  look  out,  you,  too,  will  see  them 
and  they  tell  us  that  there  are  other  people, 
who  watch  and  wait,  who  suffer  and  are  sick 
and  that  God  watches  and  cares  for  all.  And 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  knew  God,  and  among 
the  Psalms  which  his  old  nurse  taught  him  to 
say  by  heart  and  which  he  never  forgot,  was 
Psalm  121,  which  says: — 

"He  that  keepeth  thee 
Will  not  slumber ; 
Behold   he   that   keepeth    Israel 
Will  neither  slumber  nor  sleep. 
The  Lord  is  thy  Keeper." 


XLVII 
AN  EASTER  STORY-SERMON 

"With  fear  and  great  joy." — Matt.  28:8. 

IT  happened  in  Spain.  At  least  they  say 
it  happened  there,  for  this  story  is  very 
strange  and  yet  it  is  very  old.  You  may 
call  it  a  fairy  story,  and  I  will  not  quarrel  with 
you  about  it,  for  it  is  old  and  pretty  and  in  a 
real  sense  true.  Wise  people  would  call  it 
a  legend. 

Well,  it  happened  in  Spain,  near  the  old  city 
of  Toledo.  It  was  in  the  time  of  the  wild 
people  who  are  called  Moors.  They  came  over 
from  Africa  and  sent  fear  and  terror  through 
the  country,  for  they  were  cruel  and  brave 
and  put  to  death  thousands  of  innocent  people 
and  destroyed  beautiful  churches  and  cities. 

Near  the  old  city  of  Toledo  there  was  a 
beautiful  cathedral  church  where  old  men  acted 
as  monks  and  priests.  They  were  quiet  and 
kind,  and  as  the  dark  came  on  they  loved  to 
sing  the  old  hymns  and  chants  of  the  church. 
Their  cathedral  was  built  among  the  trees  of 
the  woods  near  the  city  and  people  would  come 
from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  in  the  evening 
listen  to  the  chanting  of  the  old  monks. 
162 


AN  EASTER  STORY-SERMON      163 

It  was,  as  I  said,  in  the  days  of  the  Moors, 
and  the  monks  heard  with  fear  in  their  hearts 
that  these  wild  men  were  coming  nearer  and 
nearer  their  cathedral.  One  day  they  heard 
that  they  had  captured  the  old  city  of  Toledo 
and  were  marching  out  into  the  forest  to  de- 
stroy and  ruin  the  old  convent  church.  At  last 
the  gleaming  spears  of  the  Moors  were  seen 
through  the  underbrush.  The  old  monks,  how- 
ever, did  not  run.  They  went  into  their  places 
in  the  choir  and  began  to  sing,  "Glory  to  God 
in  the  Highest."  And  then  what  do  you  think 
happened  ?  You  could  never  guess.  No.  The 
Moors  did  not  run  away.  They  came  right  on 
to  kill  and  to  destroy.  But  when  they  came  to 
the  cathedral,  lo!  it  had  disappeared.  They 
looked  and  looked,  but  they  could  see  nothing 
and  all  they  could  hear  was  a  little  bird  singing 
in  the  branches.  The  foundations  and  the 
towers,  the  organ  and  the  singers  had  all  sunk 
beneath  the  ground  or  gone  up  into  the  sky, 
no  one  could  tell  where.  Is  not  that  a  strange 
story  ? 

But  that  is  not  the  strangest  part  of  the 
story.  The  best  part  of  this  strange  story  is 
that  fifty  years  after,  a  lonely  traveller  was 
passing  through  the  forest  where  the  cathedral 
once  stood.  It  was  near  evening  and  suddenly 
he  stopped  and  listened,   for  he  thought  he 


i64     GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

heard  the  sound  of  vesper  bells  and  the  words 
of  the  evening  song.  He  did  hear  them,  but 
he  could  see  nothing,  only  a  heap  of  moss- 
covered  stones  with  a  rude  wooden  cross. 
There,  in  the  still,  still  forest  the  lonely  traveller 
heard  heavenly  music  and  bowed  his  head  and 
worshipped.  You  say,  "Of  course  the  story  is 
not  true."  Well,  you  can  have  your  own  way 
about  that,  but  I  know  a  better  story  that  is  like 
it  and  yet  is  true. 

It  is  the  story  of  Jesus.  You  know  that 
story.  The  time  came  when  wild,  bad  men 
came  to  him  to  destroy  him.  They  found  him 
out  in  the  garden  where  he  was  saying  his 
evening  prayer.  They  dragged  him  before  the 
judge  and  then  took  him  out  to  Calvary  and 
nailed  him  to  the  cross.  They  pierced  his  side 
with  a  spear  and  then  laid  his  body  away  in  a 
rocky  cave.  They  thought  that  was  the  end. 
He  had  disappeared  and  they  thought  he  had 
gone  forever.  But  a  few  days  later  they  heard 
his  friends  singing,  and  when  asked  why  they 
were  so  glad,  they  said,  "Jesus  is  risen."  And 
he  had.  And  every  Easter  Day  as  we  pass 
the  cross  and  the  new  tomb  we  hear  millions 
of  voices  and  they  are  all  singing : 

"Christ  the  Lord  is  risen  to-day. 
Sons  of  men  and  angels  say : 
Raise  your  joys  and  triumphs  high; 
Sing,  ye  heavens,  and  earth,  reply." 


XLVIII 
THE  UNKNOWN  PRINCE 

*7  stand  at  the  door." — Rev.  5 :  20. 

THIS  is  a  story  about  a  prince.  He  is  a 
king  now,  but  he  was  just  a  boy  when 
this  story  happened.  He  was  very  fond 
of  the  sea  and  among  all  the  things  he  loved 
and  liked,  he  loved  and  liked  a  sail  boat  best 
of  all. 

So  one  summer  he  and  his  brother  spent 
the  long  days  sailing  in  and  around  the  beauti- 
ful bays  of  Scotland.  They  sailed  far  north 
and  spent  much  time  in  the  Moray  Forth,  a 
beautiful  bay  near  Inverness,  in  the  north  of 
Scotland. 

One  morning  they  landed  at  Inverness  and 
agreed  to  spend  the  day  tramping  among  the 
heather  hills  of  the  Highlands.  If  you  have 
ever  been  there  you  know  how  wild  and  lonely 
those  heather  hills  are  and  you  will  not  be 
surprised  when  I  tell  you  that  they  lost  their 
way  and  could  not  find  the  path  back  to  their 
boat.  They  wandered  on  and  on  until  dark- 
ness shut  them  in  and  they  were  ready  to  lie 
165 


i66      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

down  and  spend  the  night  in  the  heather  hills. 
It  was  near  midnight,  but  they  saw  a  light  and 
their  hearts  rejoiced.  They  made  their  way 
to  the  light  and  found  a  little  house,  and  at 
the  closed  door  they  knocked  loud  and  long. 
Instead  of  the  door  being  opened,  an  angry 
voice  bade  them  be  off  and  away  or  the  dog 
would  be  let  out  upon  them.  So  they  left  that 
unfriendly  house,  but  found  shelter  in  a  little 
cottage  not  far  removed,  for  they  had  come 
at  last,  unknown  to  them,  to  the  edge  of  a 
village. 

Next  morning  the  story  of  the  young  men 
was  told  from  house  to  house  and  with  the 
story,  the  names  of  the  young  men  were 
whispered  and  people  looked  wonderingly  at 
each  other.  What  was  the  story  and  what 
were  the  people  whispering  about?  What  do 
you  think?  Well,  it  was  this, — that  one  of  the 
young  men  who  had  lost  his  way  was  Prince 
George,  now  George  V,  King  of  England,  and 
the  other  was  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  Clar- 
ence, and  that  they  had  knocked  at  Mr.  So-and- 
So's  door  in  the  night  and  had  been  ordered 
away  and  threatened  with  having  the  dog  set 
on  them.  What  do  you  think  of  that?  And 
what  would  Mr.  and  Mrs.  So-and-So  think 
when  they  heard  that  they  had  refused  to  ad- 
mit their  future  king? 


THE  UNKNOWN  PRINCE        167 

But  are  we  better  than  they  ?  We,  too,  have 
a  Prince  who  is  also  a  King  and  he,  too,  has 
knocked  at  our  door.  He  has  knocked  not 
once,  but  often.  He  has  not  lost  his  way,  but 
has  come  of  his  own  purpose  to  our  very  door. 
He  says,  "Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door,  and 
knock;  if  any  man  hear  my  voice,  and  open  the 
door,  I  will  come  in  to  him."  What  will  you 
do?  Will  you  let  him  in?  Or  will  you  tell 
him  to  go  somewhere  else?    We  sing: — 

"0  Jesus,  thou  art  standing 

Outside  the  fast  closed  door; 
In  lowly  patience  waiting 
To  pass  the  threshold  o'er." 

Why  should  we  keep  him  standing  outside  the 
door?    Why  not  open  the  door  and  say: — 

"Dear  Saviour,  enter,  enter, 
And  leave  us  never  more." 


XLIX 

I— VERY  LITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE 
"The  Ants.— Pviov.  30 :  25. 

THE  other  day  out  in  the  field  I  dis- 
covered something,  and  stooping  down 
to  pick  a  httle  violet  which  seemed  to 
be  the  first  one  of  the  spring  time,  something 
happened.  I  had  picked  the  little  flower  and 
was  ready  to  look  for  another  when  suddenly 
something  darted  out  from  beneath  my  feet 
and  scampered  off  into  the  bushes.  What  do 
you  think  it  was?  It  was  a  little  baby  rabbit, 
not  larger  than  a  little  baby's  hand,  and  it  had 
been  lying  there  in  its  nest  just  the  colour  of  the 
ground,  and  while  it  had  seen  me  all  the  while, 
I  had  not  noticed  it,  and  if  it  had  kept  quiet, 
I  would  have  passed  on  and  never  known  of 
its  little  secret  nest.  I  think  a  little  nest  in  a 
field,  or  in  a  tree,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
things  in  the  world. 

I  want  to  show  you  just  such  a  little  nest. 

It  is  not  in  a  tree,  nor  in  a  field,  but  in  a  book. 

It  is  hidden  away  in  this  book  which  we  call 

the  Bible,  and  it  has  been  there  for  years  and 

168 


VERY  LITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE    109 

years  and  years.  In  that  little  nest  four  little 
animals  have  been  sleeping  for  centuries  and 
have  only  been  disturbed  by  preachers,  like 
myself,  who  occasionally  stumble  upon  them. 
They  are  such  strange  little  animals.  They  are 
not  brothers  nor  sisters,  nor  cousins,  nor  forty- 
second  cousins.  They  are  not  relatives  at  all, 
and  yet  they  have  been  in  this  nest  together  for 
years.  They  do  not  look  alike,  but  they  are  all 
very  little  and  very  wise,  I  will  tell  you  about 
them, 

I  am  going  to  put  my  hand  into  the  nest  and 
take  one  out — just  one.  How  quick  it  is!  It 
runs  over  my  fingers  and  up  my  sleeve  and 
round  my  neck  and  down  my  arm,  and  there 
it  is  now,  in  the  hollow  of  my  hand.  Let 
us  look  at  it.  It  is  a  little  creature,  all  joints 
and  all  nerves.  It  has  six  legs  and  two  little 
hands,  but  it  has  no  wings.  It  has  the  tiniest 
eyes  you  ever  saw,  and  the  most  wonderful 
brain  for  its  size  in  the  world.  I  suppose  you 
know  what  it  is.  It  is  an  ant.  What  a  wise 
little  thing  it  is !  It  knows  how  to  work,  and 
it  knows  how  to  play,  and  it  is  clean.  It  never 
has  dirty  hands,  nor  a  dirty  face.  It  knows 
how  to  bury  the  dead,  and  it  knows  how  to 
punish  the  wrongdoer,  and  it  knows  how  to 
be  kind  to  the  helpless.  It  belongs  to  a  little 
society  called  "The  first  aid  to  the  injured." 


lyo      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

It  lives  in  a  home  and  belongs  to  a  great  family. 
It  has  a  king  and  a  queen,  princes  and 
princesses,  servants  and  slaves,  friends  and 
neighbours.  Do  you  not  think  it  is  very  wise 
even  though  it  is  very  little? 

It  is  called  wise  because  of  one  thing.  It 
prepares  its  food  in  the  summer  time  for  the 
long  winter  months.  "The  ants  are  a  people 
not  strong,  yet  they  prepare  their  meat  in  the 
summer."  It  knows  how  to  look  ahead.  A 
wise  man  once  watched  a  little  ant,  and  it 
worked  from  six  in  the  morning  till  ten  at 
night,  sixteen  long  hours,  and  it  never  thought 
once  of  striking  for  shorter  hours,  and  it 
carried  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  seeds 
and  laid  them  away  for  the  long,  dark  days 
of  the  winter.  That  is  why  we  say  that  it  is 
very  little  but  very  wise. 

Now,  boys  and  girls  can  be  wise  in  that  way 
also.  There  is  just  one  summer  to  every 
winter;  just  one  dawn  to  every  day;  just  one 
childhood  to  every  life,  and  just  one  life  to 
every  eternity.  To  get  ready  for  life  is  to  be 
wise  like  the  ant.  When  Queen  Victoria  was 
a  little  girl,  just  eight  years  old,  her  teacher 
slipped  into  her  little  book  a  piece  of  paper 
which  told  her  that  some  day  she  would  be 
the  Queen  of  England.  She  looked  at  it  and 
thought  for  a  long  while  and  then  she  said, 


VERY  LITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE     171 

"I  am  nearer  to  the  throne  than  I  think.  I 
will  try  to  get  ready  and  I  will  be  good."  She 
was  good,  and  she  did  get  ready  and  became 
the  greatest  and  best  of  queens.  We  are  all 
nearer  the  throne  than  we  think,  for  we  are 
the  children  of  God,  who  is  the  King  of  Kings. 
And  here  is  a  little  prayer  you  may  use 
to  ask  God  to  help  you  be  good: 

"I  am  trusting  thee,  Lord  Jesus, 
Trusting  only  thee : 
Trusting  thee  for  full  salvation 
Great  and  free. 

"I  am  trusting  thee  to  guide  me. 
Thou  alone  shalt  lead, 
Every  day  and  hour  supplying 
All  my  need. 

"I  am  trusting  thee  for  power. 

Thine  can  never  fail: 
Words  which  thou  thyself  shalt  give  me 
Must  prevail. 

"I  am  trusting  thee,  Lord  Jesus; 

Never  let  me  fall ; 
I  am  trusting  thee  for  ever, 
And  for  all." 


II— VERY  LITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE 
"The  Conies." — Prov.  30:26. 

AS  the  ant,  about  which  I  was  speaking 
in  the  last  story  runs  off,  I  put  my  hand 
into  the  Httle  nest  again  and  touch  a 
little  bit  of  an  animal  that  feels  like  a  baby 
rabbit.  It  is  timid  and  trembles  when  I  touch 
it.  I  will  hold  it  in  my  hand  and  tell  you 
what  it  looks  like.  It  is  a  small  greyish-brown 
little  creature  with  soft  fur.  It  has  a  little 
dash  of  white  under  its  neck  and  just  the  name 
of  a  tail.  It  has  sharp  white  teeth  and  the 
prettiest  of  manicured  finger  nails.  It  has 
fourteen  toes.  If  you  want  to  know  how  many 
it  has  on  each  of  its  feet,  look  at  the  feet 
of  your  little  kitten  when  you  go  home.  It  is 
very  shy  and  bashful  and  you  can  scarcely  get 
a  look  at  it  unless  you  are  very  smart.  It  is 
called  a  Coney  and  it  lives  in  the  rocks.  I 
suppose  its  real  name  is  Hyra.  The  Bible  says 
it  belongs  to  the  "feeble  folk,"  but  because  they 
make  their  houses  in  the  rocks,  they  are  not 
easily  hurt  or  caught. 

172 


VERY  LITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE    173 

That  is  why  they  are  wise.  They  are  weak, 
timid  little  things,  but  they  have  strong  houses 
built  in  the  clefts  of  the  solid  cliffs.  If  you 
lived  in  the  East  and  wanted  to  see  one,  you 
would  have  to  look  smart.  You  would  have 
to  go  out  in  the  evening  and  climb  up  the  rock 
and  lie  still  and  watch.  By  and  by  you  would 
see  a  little  head,  then  you  wouldn't  see  it,  then 
you  would  see  it  and  then  you  wouldn't  see  it, 
and  then  again  if  you  kept  quiet,  out  it  would 
come.  Then  another  and  another  would  come, 
and  they  would  eat  and  nibble  away  just  like 
rabbits,  but  if  you  make  a  noise,  they  are  gone 
in  a  minute  and  a  whole  army  of  American 
soldiers  could  never  reach  them.  They  make 
their  houses  in  the  rocks,  and  so  they  are  wise 
and  safe. 

Are  we  as  wise  as  the  conies?  Our  safety 
too  depends  greatly  upon  where  we  build. 
Jesus  tells  us  to  build  our  house  upon 
the  rock  where  the  storm  and  the  tem- 
pest cannot  hurt  or  harm.  I  have  heard 
of  a  boy  who  started  to  school  and  he 
was  going  to  be  a  lawyer  and  become  very 
clever  and  very  great.  The  teacher  said  to 
him,  "Well,  my  lad,  after  you  have  finished 
your  studies,  what  will  you  do  then?"  "Oh,  I 
will  go  to  college  then."  said  the  boy,  and 
"What  then  ?"  said  the  teacher.    "Then  I  will 


174      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

be  a  lawyer  and  wear  fine  clothes  and  make 
fine  speeches  and  talk  to  the  Judge  and  be  a 
great  man."  "And  what  then?"  said  the 
teacher.  "Then  I  will  be  a  Judge  and  decide 
great  cases  and  people  will  honour  me  for  being 
a  wise  man."  "And  what  then?"  said  the 
teacher,  and  the  boy  said,  "Then  I  will  be  very 
happy  and  live  in  a  fine  house."  "And  what 
then?"  said  the  teacher,  and  the  boy  said, 
"Then  I  suppose  I  will  die  like  all  the  rest." 
"And  what  then?"  but  the  boy  could  not  an- 
swer. He  had  never  thought  of  that,  and  it  is 
said  that  after  that,  he  began  to  think  and  be- 
came a  Christian.  He  found  the  rock  and 
then  he  was  safe. 

"On  Christ  the  solid  rock  I  stand 
All  other  ground  is  sinking  sand." 


LI 

III— VERY  LITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE 
"The  Locusts." — Prov.  30 :  27. 

1PUT  my  hand  into  the  nest  again  and  try- 
to  catch  another  of  the  four  little  animals 
that  have  been  sleeping  there  for  centu- 
ries. My,  but  it  is  hard  to  catch !  It  kicks  and 
jumps  and  hops  and  steps  about  so  lively  that 
one  has  to  take  both  hands  to  catch  it.  Well, 
here  it  is!  It's  the  most  ticklish  thing  I  ever 
had  in  my  hand.  It  is  like  a  jumping  jack. 
It  seems  to  be  all  legs,  and  to  have  long  legs 
too.  It  has  long,  thin,  gauzy  wings.  It  has 
a  little  square  head  and  sharp  jaw.  I  won- 
der if  you  can  guess  what  it  is.  Well,  I  guess 
it's  a  grasshopper.  The  Bible  calls  it  a  locust. 
The  interesting  thing  about  this  little  locust 
or  grasshopper  is  that  it  is  a  soldier.  It  has 
no  weapons  but  its  teeth  and  legs  and  wings, 
but  it  is  a  soldier.  It  belongs  to  the  infantry, 
and  also  to  the  aviation  corps.  It  can  march 
and  it  can  fly.  This  is  what  the  Bible  says 
about  it, — "The  locusts  have  no  king,  yet  go 
they  forth  all  of  them  by  companies."  If  you 
175 


1/6      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

will  turn  to  another  book,  it  will  tell  you  what 
wonderful  soldiers  these  little  creatures  are. 
"They  shall  run  like  mighty  men;  they  shall 
climb  the  wall  like  men  of  war  and  they  shall 
march  every  one  on  his  way ;  and  they  shall  not 
break  their  ranks:  Neither  shall  one  thrust 
another;  they  shall  walk  every  one  in  his  path; 
and  when  they  fall  upon  the  sword,  they  shall 
not  be  wounded.  They  shall  run  to  and  fro 
in  the  city;  they  shall  run  upon  the  wall,  they 
shall  climb  up  upon  the  houses,  they  shall  enter 
in  at  the  windows  like  a  thief.  The  earth 
shall  quake  before  them;  the  heavens  shall 
tremble :  the  sun  and  the  moon  shall  be  dark, 
and  the  stars  shall  withdraw  their  shining." 
(Joel  2:7-10.)  What  a  wonderful  soldier 
this  little  locust  is ! 

And  so  this  little  creature  teaches  boys  and 
girls  to  keep  step,  to  march  in  the  ranks,  to 
walk  side  by  side  with  one  another.  Some- 
times we  like  to  get  out  of  step  and  to  do  what 
we  please  and  go  our  own  way,  but  ii  we 
are  to  succeed  we  must  keep  in  step.  One  day 
a  proud  mother  was  watching  the  soldiers 
marching,  and  her  own  boy  was  among  them, 
and  afterwards  she  said,  "What  fine  lads  they 
are  and  my  boy  was  the  only  one  that  was  in 
step."  Of  course  he  was  out  of  step,  but  all 
good  soldiers  keep  step. 


VERY  LITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE    177 

These  little  locusts  had  no  king  yet  they  kept 
step  and  conquered  cities  and  countries.  They 
climbed  over  walls  and  houses  and  made  the 
whole  land  where  they  came  their  own.  They 
were  soldiers,  however,  of  famine  and  distress. 
They  were  not  soldiers  of  peace  and  plenty. 
We  too  are  soldiers — soldiers  of  peace,  and  we 
have  a  King  and  a  Leader,  and  what  an  army 
he  has !  The  best  part  of  his  army  is  the  great 
regiment  of  little  children  who  make  the  best 
soldiers  for  they  follow  wherever  he  leads,  and 
this  is  the  song  they  sing: — 

"Onward,  then,  ye  people. 

Join  our  happy  throng,  _ 
Blend  with  ours  your  voices 

In  the  triumph-song; 
Glory,  laud,  and  honour 

Unto  Christ  the  King: 
This  through  countless  ages 

Men  and  angels  sing. 

"Onward,  Christian  soldiers. 

Marching  as  to  war. 
With  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Going  on  before." 


LII 

IV— VERY  tITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE 

"The  lizard." — Prov.  30:28. 

THE  fourth  little  animal  in  this  Bible 
nest  has  been  very  patient  but  at  last 
we  must  wake  it  up  and  learn  its  les- 
son. I  do  not  know  whether  to  take  it  in  my 
hand  or  not.  Perhaps  I  ought  to  put  on  a  pair 
of  gloves  before  I  pick  it  up.  Some  people 
think  it  is  poisonous.  I  hardly  think  so  and 
I'll  run  the  risk  of  holding  it  in  my  hand. 

I  scarcely  know  what  it  is.  No  one  seems 
to  know  exactly  what  it  is,  for  its  name  oc- 
curs only  once  in  all  the  Bible,  and  you  can't 
tell  what  a  thing  is  if  you  only  hear  the  name 
once.  Sometimes  it  is  called  a  spider,  and  a 
spider  is  not  a  very  nice  thing  to  hold  in  one's 
hand,  and  sometimes  it  is  called  a  lizard, — a 
little  soft-fleshed,  delicate,  spotted  little  thing, 
and  this  is  what  the  Revised  Version  of  the 
Bible  says  about  it.  "The  lizard  taketh  hold 
with  her  hands,  yet  is  she  in  kings*  palaces." 

There  is  one  thing  that  this  little  animal  can 
do.  It  can  climb.  It  is  very  little,  but  it  can 
178 


VERY  LITTLE  BUT  VERY  WISE    179 

climb  high.  It  can  climb  over  walls  that  are 
as  smooth  as  the  floor,  and  over  ceilings  that 
are  as  smooth  as  glass,  right  up  into  the  very 
palace  of  the  King,  and  into  the  Queen's  cham- 
ber. 

If  there  is  one  thing  a  boy  can  do — and  some 
girls  too,  it  is  to  climb.  Boys  and  girls  are  al- 
ways climbing,  climbing  out  of  their  clothes 
and  out  of  their  shoes,  and  out  of  their  high 
chairs,  and  out  of  their  toys  and  their  classes 
and  their  schools,  and  their  colleges,  up  into 
life,  into  manhood  and  womanhood.  We 
would  not  like  them  if  they  did  not  climb.  We 
want  boys  and  girls  to  grow,  to  grow  tall  and 
strong  and  good  and  beautiful,  I  can  imagine 
th?t  every  time  Mary  looked  at  Jesus  she 
V  ould  say,  *'JViy,  how  fast  he  grows,"  and  when 
Lake  began  to  write  the  life  of  Jesus  he  soon 
discovered  that  he  never  stayed  still  but  was 
always  growing  and  so  he  wrote,  "And  Jesus 
grew  in  wisdom  and  stature  and  in  favour  with 
God  and  men,"  He  climbed  out  of  childhood 
and  boyhood  into  manhood  and  power  and  into 
favour  with  God  and  men.  A'  great  writer  has 
said,  "No  child,  no  boy,  no  lad,  no  young  man 
in  all  Galilee  was  In  such  universal  favour,  was 
so  popular,  and  so  universally  beloved  for 
thirty  years  as  was  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  I 
like  to  think  this  was  so,  and  that  as  the  years 


i8o      GOSPEL  STORY-SERMONS 

went  by,  Jesus  grew  in  loveliness  and  favour 
until  everybody  was  his  friend  and  he  became 
the  favourite  playmate  of  all  his  friends. 

God  means  us  to  climb  and  he  is  always  say- 
ing, "Come  up  higher."  Away  over  in  the 
mountains  of  Switzerland  there  is  a  little  gran- 
ite tombstone,  high  up  in  the  mountains,  and 
on  it  there  is  the  name  of  the  mountain  guide 
who  died  as  he  was  climbing  the  snow-capped 
mountains,  and  on  that  little  stone,  there  are 
carved  the  words,  "He  died  climbing."  I  think 
that  is  a  very  good  motto  for  any  one.  God 
means  us  to  climb.  To  climb  out  of  our  weak- 
ness into  his  strength,  out  of  our  sinfulness  into 
his  love,  and  at  last  out  of  life  into  his  Eternity. 
Like  the  lizard,  we  too  can  climb  into  the  very 
palace  of  the  King. 


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